South Africans are currently enjoying more hours with access to electricity as lower stages of Loadshedding are implemented. While it is inevitable that loadshedding will occur during the National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams, several precautionary measures have been introduced to mitigate the impact of rolling blackouts.
One matriculant says the reduction in power cuts means they can study at any time and not have their study time dictated to them by the loadshedding schedule.
Loading wasn't so much that time so it was quite easier for me to study because then I didn't have to have a specific time to study so I could just pick up my book or check out our papers online
Another pupil said power cuts can make it challenging to prepare for exams. They explain that they need battery power to use the internet and download and work through past papers.
I just download Past papers because that's all I can do, download the material that's given to me on Google Classroom but sometimes it doesn't help because by the time my phone dies or the laptop dies then I can't do anything.
Western Cape Education Department (WCED) David Maynier says the first week of the examinations went well. They explain that it's the first time since 2019
For the first time since 2019, the written exams went extremely well with no disruptions which set the tone for the session and we hope it continues ensuring adequate power supply at schools where matric pupils are writing exams
Electricity Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa was recently asked about the possibility of exempting schools from loadshedding.
They said that while schools cannot be entirely exempt from power cuts, efforts are being made to control outages in the evening. This initiative aims to prevent pupils from having to study in the dark, acknowledging the additional strain this puts on an already challenging academic year.
"It's very difficult to exempt all schools because they I mean if you come to think of it ,if you map the density of the geographic locations of these schools you'll find that the highest densities of these schools are located in areas of a significant amount of load shedding."
