SURPRISE GOLELA UPDATES

By: Surprise Golela Basic education minister Angie Motshekga has announced that matric pupils will not rewrite the leaked Maths and Physics Paper 2 exams.   This is in line with the high court in Pretoria’s ruling. The Council of Education (CEM), which consists of the minister and deputy minister of basic education and all provincial education MECs has agreed with the high court in Pretoria’s ruling. On Friday, the court ruled that the rewrite decision was unlawful, irregular and should be set aside. Motshekga says pupils, teachers and parents should take solace in the CEM’s decision. In a statement released on Saturday, the department of education says: “CEM agreed that the class of 2020 has been confronted by many challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and it would therefore be unfair to further subject the class of 2020, their teachers and parents to further uncertainties and exacerbate the anxieties they currently face," Concerns over judgement While the CEM agrees ...

 -BY: Surprise Golela The class of 2020 is expected to sit for their final exams from November 5. The Minister of Basic Education addressed the media this morning on key developments in the basic education sector relating to Covid-19 level 1 regulations. “Today, we launch the official countdown to the examinations. It is now 34 days to the start of the NSC examinations for the matric class of 2020,” said Motshekga. The minister appealed with parents, guardians, and communities to rally behind all the candidates who will be writing their final exams this year. She added and said this is an extraordinary time for them (class of 2020) and all of us, but they need the support more. This year more than 1 million matriculants are expected to write their final exams next month, which is said to be the biggest group in the history of basic education department. “A total of 1 058, 699 candidates will sit for the examinations and we certainly have never had to manage a number that ...

-BY: Surprise Golela   During a media brief this morning the Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced that the 2021 academic year will officially start on 25 January. “First, let me confirm that schools will reopen on 25 January 2021,” said Motshekga. She said the school calendar will be gazetted tomorrow Friday, 2 October after that it will be made public. The Minister said they are working hard to plan the 2021 academic year taking into consideration the challenges the sector and the whole country faced this year. “ We are fully aware that the country need the school   calendar for effective planning purpose, we have worked hard to ensure it is done properly taking into account the disruptions that have occurred in 2020,” said Motshekga. The Minister’s briefing provided an update on key developments in the Basic Education sector relating to Covid-19 level 1 restrictions. Motshekga said schools will have to carry over some of this year’s curriculum work into...

By: Surprise Golela   The Department of Basic Education has cancelled this year’s final examinations for grade 10 and 11 pupils and the examination will be replaced with controlled tests. In line with the revised annual teaching plans and the time spent on teaching and learning, the promotion requirements for 2020 academic year have been revised. Grade 10’s will sit for an hour duration paper while Grade 11 will sit for two hours long papers. The pupils will write tests which are set by their schools, this is because the common tests which are always set by the provinces will not be set this year. The circular by the Department of Basic Education states that control tests should be set only on the content that was taught to pupils. “The controlled test must cover portion of the curriculum taught preferably work covered in all terms, wherever possible,” The circular further states that the tests must be administered under controlled conditions. “Fundamental subject...

By: Surprise Golela   The Department of Basic Education has released the final combined matric examination time-table. Early this year the Department postponed the writing of the National Senior Certificate and the Senior Certificate examinations, which were meant to be written by more than 350 000 part-time candidates in May and June this year due to COVID-19. The Combined June and November examinations will officially commence on Thursday,  November 20-20, and end on Tuesday, 15 December 2020. The department says the late commencement of the final Grade 12 examinations will allow schools and learners adequate time to cover the curriculum and also ensure that ample time is allocated for revision of the syllabus. This year over 1,1 Million candidates are expected to sit for the 2020 matric exams. The Education Dept said all registered candidates will receive an admission letter, by end of September 2020. The Life Orientation (LO) common Assessment task will be written on Monda...

BY: Surprise Golela Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga has welcomed the cabinet's decision to close all public schools for four weeks. In his address last night President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the closure of all public schools for the next four weeks. Ramaphosa said that schools will close from Monday 24 July and reopen again on 24 August 2020. Motshekga said that the 4 weeks break will allow schools to prepare for the return of more grades to schools later in August. Schools across the country reopened on 8 June for only Grade 7 and 12 pupils after they were closed in March to curb the spread of COVID-19 under lockdown level 5. The decision to close schools now comes as the country records more than 408 000 COVID-19 cases, which puts our country to be number 1 in Africa and to be in the top 5 worst affected country in the whole world. Grade 12 learners will reopen schools on 3 August after an only one-week break while Grade...

By: Surprise Golela The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga has on Wednesday announced that as per schedule more grades will be expected to return to schools on this 6 July. Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga. Early this month we saw the reopening of schools across the country taking place after the closure of schools for almost two months. Grade 7 and 12 pupils were the first group of learners to go back to schools as part of the department's plan to save 2020 academic year. As schools prepared to welcome more pupils the Basic Education Minister has put emphasis on the safety of learners. “We will continue to work hard in schools to make sure we protect our learners, teachers and employees within schools ,” Motshekga said.   The Minister has also urged parents to refrain from visiting schools as she says that also increases the risk of more infections. The Grades that are now going to join Grade 7 and 12 pupils in schools are: ·    ...

By : Surprise Golela   The Educators Union of South Africa is calling on the President of South Africa to fire the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga. The union has given the president a period of two months to make the call. This follows a spike in COVID-19 cases since schools reopened. “In just the first three days of school reopening we have seen over 2,000 learners and teachers testing positive COVID-19 and a subsequent closure of more than 100 schools across the country” said the Union in a statement. The Union has tried to stop the decision to reopen schools by seeking an urgent interdict against the reopening of schools from the Pretoria High Court. The High Court has ruled in favor of the Department of Basic Education.  The Union said that in the 10 years of Angie Motshekga being in the office as the Minister of Basic Education she has failed to address many issues that lenders are faced with in schools. The Union says they are aware of many ineq...

The ONE MOVEMENT SOUTH AFRICA which is led by the former Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane has today taken the Department of Basic Education to court to stop the reopening of schools that are scheduled for next week Monday for grade 7 and 12 pupils. The Constitutional Court of South Africa has all of that the application for direct access to the Court on an urgent basis is dismissed. which left the Department of basic education with another victory over the reopening of schools. Although the Constitutional Court has dismissed the application to block the reopening of schools on the 8 June Mmusi Maimane says it did not mean a loss for his organization and that they could approach a lower Court to hear the matter. The former democratic alliance leader says the reason behind the Court application is the unreadiness of schools and the safety of learners. He insists that schools will not be ready to reopen next week as the Minister of Basic Education has announced. Maimane is not the...

South Africa will by Thursday know what the plans by the Department of Basic education are regarding the reopening of schools during the level 4 of the national lockdown. The Basic education department has announced that Minister Angie Motshekga will hold a press briefing on Thursday to explain the plans.  image from: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/01/31/18/08/class-255620_960_720.jpg On Monday the Minister Angie Motshekga held several meetings with Education MEC’s, teachers’ unions, the school Governing Body Association and the SA principals’ Association. The Minister today was to meet with national command council, and she will on Wednesday meet with cabinet.   The Basic Education Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said that at the cabinet meeting it is expected that the recovery plan of the education sector will also be discussed. Motshekga would on Thursday then reveal the final dates of schools reopening and the detailed plans for the phased approach to the pos...

The days are long and the wait is longer. While matriculants up and down the country are lounging around at home, suffering from FOMO and thinking that everyone else is having a bigger, better holiday than them( trust me, they aren't). Matric year marks the end of a memorable 12-year journey and you are one Step Closer to fulfilling your dream. Basic education Minister Angie Motshekga has announced that the national 2019 matric results will be announced on the evening of Tuesday January 7th 2020. Matriculants will be able to get their individual results the next day either online or from their schools. Picture adapted from Department of Basic Education website. The 2019 National Senior Certificate examinations saw 790 405 candidates sitting for about 147 question papers at 7416 examination centres nationwide. Motshekga had declared herself pleased that the examination process had gone smoothly.  Although there were few manageable incidents which took place in some of the...

The 2019 Matriculants of South  Africa are very optimis tic  about their final exams, which are to start on Wednesday 23 October 2019. English first Additional language is the first main Exam to be written by the class of 2019. They are approximately about 790 405 pupils who will be writing the 2019 national senior certificate(NSC). The government has always been behind the pupils from day one offering the support they needed. The Matric candidates were encouraged to take advantage of the opportunities that were available to them from the begin of the 2019 academic year so that they can develop themselves to be better citizens. The government had removed many barriers to education by introducing "no fee" schools and offering bursaries and study loans to students who want to study at institutions of higher learning. It was never an easy year, we had so many challenges this year at schools throughout the provinces of South Africa  more especially Gauten...

The Spokesperson of the Department of Basic Education Elijah Mhlanga shared pictures of semi-naked women reading books on his twitter account over the weekend alongside the department's "Read to lead" campaign. The twitter users were not happy with the tweets and they expressed distasteful. The pictures looked as if Mhlanga was using women as object to attract young people to start reading.  A lot were offended by the tweets and did not hesitate to express their feelings. The Education system in South Africa has always been poor compared to other African countries, even studies shows that a lot of young people spend a lot of time on social media than on reading books. Nonetheless, this doesn't give the spokesperson the right to disrespectful women the way he did. The Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has distanced herself and her department  from the tweets. In a statement that she made she said that she was not aware that the campaign wo...