Cape Town - With just 38 days to go before the start of the final matric exams, Cabinet has condemned "in the strongest possible terms" protests taking place in some parts of the country by pupils, who in some instances have disrupted matric preliminary examinations.
Briefing media following a Cabinet meeting, Government spokesperson Themba Maseko said disrupting examinations was totally unacceptable.
"Disrupting education can never be an acceptable form of protest, especially in a democratic state such as ours," said Maseko, who added that the protestors must be held accountable for their actions.
He said there was no plan at the moment to cancel or suspend preliminary examinations and appealed to provincial education authorities to improve communication to schools and pupils about examination dates, pointing out that it appeared that some of the pupil's concerns may be justified in that some had not been informed whether exams would be taking place at that point or not.
But he added that student bodies should discuss their concerns with education authorities, rather than disrupt classes and examinations.
There was no national decision as yet to cancel the September school holidays, said Maseko, adding that some provinces may consider cancelling the holidays, while others may not.
"Some schools have indicated that they did not experience too much disruption so they do not support the cancellation of the school holidays," Maseko said.
He said the Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga was presently meeting with unions and MECs to ensure that recovery programmes were put in place to support pupils, particularly matrics.
"Special tuition and revision programmes, including weekend and holiday classes, have been put in place to ensure that learners are well prepared for the final examinations," he said.
Turning to the Western Cape's decision recently to dock the pay of those teachers who were involved in strike, Maseko said no other province had so far opted to follow the Western Cape's example.
He said unions had raised the issue of docking of pay in meetings held last week with the government.
One proposal which has emanated from the meetings, is for the government to spread these deductions over a protracted time period rather than through a single deduction. He said though a figure of three months had been mentioned, no time period had yet been agreed upon.
