The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has released a media statement through its social platforms citing the response of the power utility on their request to suspend load shedding during exams.
In the statement released by the DBE, it said Andre de Ruyter, the Eskom CEO expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to matric candidates and the department and said Eskom as an organisation understood the challenges brought on by load shedding.
De Ruyter further stated that DBE is not the only concerned department, and several other departments had raised the same concerns on how load shedding impacts their operations.
The meeting is said to have been attended by managers from the Public Enterprises, led by Director-General Kgathatso Tlhakudi and DBE Acting Director-General Dr Granville Whittle who was accompanied by a team of managers.
They deliberated on the impact of load shedding on basic education in general and the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations in particular.
The DBE said that in the meeting it made a presentation in which it outlined the scope of the NSC Examinations and why it was important to have an uninterrupted electricity supply.
The department said load shedding was creating a general sense of anxiety and tension among candidates at a time when they should be focused on writing their final examinations.
The department made the following suggestions:
Consideration must be made for load shedding to be avoided when the South African Sign Language Home Language (SASL HL) exam is written on 23 and 30 November, as it requires laptops and other devices.
Eskom should suspend load shedding every evening, from Sunday to Thursday, for four hours across the country from 7pm to 11pm. This would allow pupils to prepare for the examination to be written the following morning.
Eskom should suspend load shedding across the 194 marking centres. Marking takes place from December 8 to 22. Eskom should suspend load shedding across the 37 capture centres from December 11 to 27.
De Ruyter however said, he will consider the DBE recommendations. He added that Eskom had adjusted the load-shedding schedule to stage 2 last Thursday and had suspended it on Friday.
He warned that there was no guarantee that the suspension would remain in place as the situation was being monitored regularly.
On loadshedding and the impact on exams: @DBE_SA @dbe_tv @dbetvnews pic.twitter.com/tLKMEUIt5k
— Elijah Mhlanga (@ElijahMhlanga) November 12, 2021
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