Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Mathanzima Mweli

latest news & developments
Ministers will assess progress since the Africa Foundational Learning Exchange (FLEX 2024) commitment to end learning poverty within a decade, alongside the declarations from last year’s Continental Conference on Education in Mauritania. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
CLASSROOMS

Education department failed to build or renovate schools in four provinces in 2023-24 financial year

Education department failed to build or renovate schools in four provinces in 2023-44 financial year

  • Umamah Bakharia
3 min read
BRONAGH HAMMOND

More than a month since schools opened, some learners are still without schools

Provincial departments of education blame late applications and building budget constraints as reasons some learners are still not in classrooms

  • Bongekile Macupe
3 min read
The general public is most often unaware of certain manipulations that enable some schools to claim their 100% pass rate records and the prestige that comes along with it. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
76 2

Class of 2020 produces ‘quality passes’ — Motshekga

The minister of basic education released the 2020 matric results on Monday, announcing that the overall pass rate has declined from 2019

  • Bongekile Macupe
3 min read
The results of learners implicated in the leak of the two papers in the 2020 matric examination and the results of those learners involved in “group copying” will be blocked while investigations continue.
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA

Leaked papers may lead to learners losing their matric certificates

Umalusi has approved the release of the 2020 matric results saying that it did not find systemic irregularities that compromised the exam

  • Bongekile Macupe
4 min read
2020 ACADEMIC CALENDAR

Vandals and storms damage schools, says education department

Learners will be moved to other schools and into mobile classrooms

  • Bongekile Macupe
5 min read
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA

Covid sets education back years

The effects of the pandemic will still be felt by learners entering the school system in 2028

  • Bongekile Macupe
4 min read
Strict Covid protocols are in place for the exams, with special provision made for those who test positive.
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA

Department of basic education edges closer to releasing matric results

The basic education department has said that it is almost done with the marking process and that the capturing of marks is in progress.

  • Bongekile Macupe
3 min read
A record 98.31% of Grade 12 learners passed the 2025 National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations administered by the Independent Examinations Board
AFRIFORUM

‘Decision not to rewrite has caused a crisis,’ says basic education head

The high court has set aside the decision by the department and education quality assurer Umalusi that matrics would have to rewrite two subject leaked just before the matric exams

  • Bongekile Macupe
5 min read
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA

‘No national matric rewrite’, says court

This follows an urgent application by individual learners and Sadtu, who wanted the court to set aside a decision by the department for a rewrite of two leaked matric exam papers

  • Bongekile Macupe
8 min read
Thousands of jubilant matriculants will be celebrating the end of 12 years of secondary schooling.
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA

Matric results may be withheld if rewrite decision is set aside

The Pretoria high court will rule tomorrow on the case of a rewrite of two matric exam papers that were leaked, after learners and a teachers union challenged the decision in court

  • Bongekile Macupe
6 min read
AFRIFORUM

Sadtu says Motshekga bowed to pressure from Umalusi to allow rewrite

The teachers union and several learners will appear before the Pretoria high court on Thursday, where they will ask that Motshekga’s decision for a national rewrite of two leaked…

  • Bongekile Macupe
7 min read
Strict Covid protocols are in place for the exams, with special provision made for those who test positive.
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA

Testing times for grade 12 learners

Strict Covid protocols are in place for the exams, with special provision made for those who test positive

  • Bongekile Macupe
6 min read
Grade 11 learner ( who wish to remain anonymous) from Onkgopotse Tiro Combine School has resorted in assisting in building his mother’s new home to keep busy and to learn in order to prepare himself for a civil engeneering course that he wants to persue when he finished school. Without any explanation from his school, he has been sitting at home since the beggining of the lockdown even though other learners from different schools have started attending. (Oupa Nkosi)
ANGIE MOTSHEKGA

Farmworkers’ children forgotten

They have been unable to return to their school in North West because the hostel is closed

  • Bongekile Macupe
7 min read
Equal Education has criticised last week’s medium term budget policy statement for what it said was a failure to provide adequate funding to the education sector. (Madelene Cronje)
BASIC EDUCATION

Government must give a helping hand to learners who drop out

We cannot simply accept that 75 000 young people or more have dropped out of school this year and that life continues as normal — we need to give them opportunities

  • Bongekile Macupe
4 min read
Most of Gauteng and Western Cape schools are in Covid-19 hotspots.
ALEXANDRA

Most Gauteng, Western Cape schools in hotspots

Out of more than 25 000 schools in the country, 8 047 were in hotspots and 6 995 of these were public schools. And most of Gauteng’s and the Western Cape’s schools are in hotspots

  • Bongekile Macupe
4 min read