Pupils claim to have been led down by Eskom power failures.
School exam markers will have to consider that some pupils could not prepare for their final papers because bad weather led to electricity outages this week.
KwaZulu-Natal education spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi reassured frustrated pupils this would have to be the case after some parts of Pietermaritzburg, especially Thornville, were without power and pupils struggled to do their final preparations for maths, English, economic management science (EMS) and geography papers they wrote on Wednesday.
“During the marking of the exam papers, all contextual factors are taken on board and I think this time around all that would be taken on board,” said Mahlambi.
The biggest concern was that pupils could fail their grades if they performed badly in English and maths.
Thornville was hit by power cuts on Monday evening. On Tuesday morning Eskom customers received SMSes saying “Eskom is aware of the power failure in your area. Our technician has located the fault and is busy with the repair”.
However, the power was only restored at about 5am on Wednesday.
On Thursday from 2pm, there was another cut. Eskom spokesperson Joyce Zingoni, contacted for comment, referred questions to Alfred, an automated system that assists customers with complaints, to get a reference so she could find out about the problem and when the power might be restored.
When a list of reference numbers received from Alfred was given to her, she said they were for the wrong dates citing October and September 12.
Zingoni did not respond to questions about earlier power cuts.
Repeated calls to the Customer Care Hotline (0860 037 566) generated the answering machine response: “We are sorry, your call cannot be completed at this time. Please hang up and try and call again later. Thank you.”
Mahlambi said the department could not blame Eskom for bad weather-related power outages.
“This was a disaster that none of us were anticipating as we understand that rain disrupted many things, including households, hospitals, police operations and our children who were preparing to write.
“But we are happy that despite these difficulties, Eskom was able to restore power, although it was not immediate,” said Mahlambi.
He said he was confident the power cut would not have much of an effect on the exams because the department had thoroughly prepared pupils throughout the year to perform well during their exams.
Some pupils in the Thornville area had to use cellphone torches to study because in total darkness on Tuesday night.
While rushing to exam rooms, they told the Independent on Saturday that power cuts led them down.
“I could not study last night (Tuesday) because my phone had run out of battery for the torch and I am not sure whether or not I am prepared for the geography paper,” said one pupil writing Grade 11.
Another one said she was not struggling with maths, but “when it comes to writing the final paper, I needed to study to the last minute”.
“Last night I tried to use my phone to study but it suddenly ran out of power and I had to go to sleep without completing my preparation for Grade 9 EMS (Economic Management Sciences) paper.
“Even on Monday evening, I could not study much for my maths paper because the power went off at about 10pm while I was still busy with my books,” she said.
The continuous power failure was in contrast with Eskom having suspended scheduled load shedding in March thanks to its Generation Operational Recovery Plan which delivered ongoing “structural improvements and efficiencies to the coal fleet”. The country has gone for more than 200 consecutive days without scheduled interrupted power supply.
Msunduzi Association of Residents and Ratepayers chairperson Anthony Waldhausen said the city was experiencing unannounced power cuts, which were likely to affect children’s preparation for exams “especially in the evening”.
The Governing Body Foundation (GBF) said it had not received complaints about the evening studies being disrupted by power cuts.
“The only thing we are concerned about is the traffic congestion around Durban which might cause the children to be late for their exams,” said GBF provincial executive officer Sandra du Toit.
In the run-up to the exams, education deputy minister Reginah Mhaule told the media that Eskom had assured the department that there would be no load reductions that would disrupt pupils who would be writing subjects that required electricity.