PUPILS NOT READY FOR EXAMS – SOME HEADS

MBABANE – Some head teachers feel that pupils are not ready to write exams.

The Prime Minister, Cleopas Dlamini’s statement last Thursday, said pupils had left classes and roamed the streets subconsciously, pushing agendas of other people. He said valuable time had been lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that examination dates were shifted to mitigate the lost time and the children were missing out on an opportunity they would never recover. He then announced that the dates for the examinations would not be shifted. In an interview with Qomintaba High School Head teacher Christopher Mbingo, he said after being away from school as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pupils were only just adjusting to getting back to learning but the current situation regarding protests had made the situation worse.

Wasted

“I do not think the pupils are ready to write exams, too much time has been wasted and they will not be able to pass in my view,” he said. He said the fact that some of them were involved in the protests added to their setback and he did not see any good results as a result of engaging in the protests. One of the other major concerns he raised was that attendance was extremely low, highlighting that even the completing pupils were hardly at school. “It is very painful that other schools in for instance in urban areas are able to continue with their studies while on   the outskirts, on the other hand, are at a standstill,” said the head teacher. According to Mbingo, even if the pupils would decide to give their full attention to their studies starting from today, it would still be too late. “At the moment, we have not yet met  with parents to discuss a way forward, maybe they use organisations to raise their concerns, but at the moment we have not had an official discussion with parents,” he added.

Syllabus

Head teacher of Madulini High School Themba Gumedze also concurred, but said they would try to cover the syllabus, however, their biggest problem was the disturbances that were currently occurring on a regular basis. “If there were no disturbances, our committed teachers would try ensuring that the pupils are able to write exams. We are still trying our level best to get the pupils ready but we are unfortunately fighting against disturbances,” said Gumedze. He said the protests were affecting the pupils to a point where their attention span was visibly limited. “We do not have 100 per cent attendance, the rate of absenteeism is very high. Unfortunately there is also not much interaction that we are getting with the parents regarding this issue,” said Gumedze.
Sikhumbuzo Dlamini, the Head teacher of Hosea High School, said it was hard to say that the pupils were ready for exams as it required them to be at school and learning, which was not the case these days. “I do not have any guarantee that the pupils will be ready but if things were to go back to normal, teachers would try their best to prepare them,” added Dlamini.

Parent

He said as a teacher and a parent, he would only advise the pupils to come back to school and learn to secure a better future for themselves. Sandleni High School Head teacher Celiwe Magongo said if there would be no interruptions between now and the exam date, she anticipated that they would be able to cover the syllabus. She said the challenge was that the shift system had made things different as some pupils did not even attend on one of the two days set for them to attend due to the protests. “With the way things are going, I do not think that they can be ready. Even when they are in class, you still notice that they are very distracted and want to be outside,” said Magongo. She said that in her view, if the protests would stop and pupils fully concentrated on learning starting from today, then maybe they would be ready for the exams, but unfortunately with the current events that were happening, it did not look promising.

This publication also interviewed some of the pupils who had mixed feelings about their preparedness for examinations. The pupils were interviewed after having sought consent from their parents. “We are able to study and the teachers send us notes using our Whatsapp group, so I think we will be ready,” said a pupil at Sandleni High School. Another pupil said; “I do not think we are ready for examinations because even the attendance at school is very low, so I doubt we will be ready on the set date”. Speaking to Colile Dlamini, who is one of the parents of three pupils from one of the schools in the Shiselweni Region, she said nothing beat being serious about education and said the pupils needed to focus.

Last Thursday, this publication reported that 10 schools protested in one day, mainly in the Shiselweni and Lubombo regions. The main demand by the pupils was the call for the release of incarcerated Members of Parliament (MPs), Mduduzi Bacede Mabuza of Hosea and Mthandeni Dube of Ngwempisi. The Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, pleaded with the pupils to refrain from protest actions and concentrate on their lessons.

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