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Cruel EC Education Dept traumatizing progressed learners

By

Dear MyPE

The DA demands that the Eastern Cape Department of Education issues a memo stating why certain students who failed Grade 11 were not progressed to Grade 12 in 2018.

It is alleged that a number of learners who were pushed through to Grade 12 in 2018 were redirected back to Grade 11 and were informed that, although they have failed more than twice, they will be retained in Grade 11. As a result, frustrated learners’ school attendance rates may drop and they might eventually drop out of school.

Pushing back these leaners has a traumatic psychological effect on them and their parents. This harsh, cruel and uncaring culling strategy seems to be a deliberate effort by the department to convince learners to drop out of school.

The drop-out rate for Eastern Cape learners registered in Grade 10 but not reaching and passing Grade 12 is astronomically high. Of the 154 774 Eastern Cape learners registered for Grade 10 in 2015, only 67 648 wrote their matric exams in 2017. Learners cannot be used as an educational football for the department to ensure a better matric pass rate in the future.

The DA insists that the department formulate a clear policy on progressed learners to prevent them from being subjected to further inhumane treatment.

Regards

Edmund van Vuuren

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Port Elizabethan

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