Thursday, November 24, 2022

Over 128 000 WC learners missed school for 2 days, following SANTACO strike

The Western Cape’s Education Department (WCED) said that more than 128 000 learners did not attend school on Monday or Tuesday, due to the taxi strike.

SANTACO embarked on a two-day strike as they were unhappy about Government’s subsidy for the taxi industry; government’s by-laws on taxis; as well as the termination of the Blue Dot taxi project.

MEC David Maynier said school staff were also negatively affected, with 4 400 people missing work on Monday and Tuesday.

‘’On Monday, 128 699 learners in Grades 1 to 11 missed school, and on Tuesday, 128 747 missed school. What this means is that the strike cost 11% of the Grade 1 to 11 learners of the Western Cape two days of schooling.’’

‘’School staff were also negatively affected, with 2 435 missing work on Monday, and 1 965 on Tuesday. Most crucially, many schools had to reschedule exams, disrupting the end-of-year revision, marking, and administrative processes at our schools,’’ he added.

Maynier said despite this, candidates writing the 2022 NSC exams, in the province were all able to write their exams this week.

‘’On Monday, [out of 32 490], 354 Life Sciences candidates were affected by the strike, of which 297 wrote at alternate exam centres, and 57 arrived late at their designated centre but were nonetheless afforded the full time allocation for their exam.’’

‘’On Tuesday, [out of 27 055] 415 Geography candidates were affected by the strike, with 358 writing at an alternate exam centre, and 57 arrived late to their designated centre, and were also afforded the full time allocation for their exam,’’ he added.

MEC Maynier said that members have the right to strike, but said, other options should have been explored that would not have had such a disruptive impact on learners.

‘’The best interests of the children of the Western Cape should always come first,’’ he concluded.

 PICTURE: MEC Maynier

Done By: Mitchum George

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