Taxi strike kept 100 000 pupils at home

MORE than 100 000 learners in the Western Cape did not make it to school over the two-day shutdown imposed by the South African National Taxi Council (Santaco).

The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) said that while all matric candidates were able to write their exams over the two days, other learners were severely impacted by the strike on Monday and Tuesday.

On Monday, 128 699 learners in grades 1 to 11 missed school, and 128 747 on Tuesday.

Education MEC David Maynier said: “What this means is that the strike cost 11% of the Grade 1 to 11 learners of the Western Cape two days of schooling. School staff were also negatively affected, with 2 435 missing work on Monday, and 1 965 on Tuesday. Most crucially, many schools had to reschedule exams, disrupting the end-of-year revision, marking, and administrative processes at our schools.”

Two major exams were written on the two days. On Monday, 32 490 candidates were registered for life sciences paper 2, and 27 055 were registered for geography paper 2 on Tuesday.

In anticipation of the exam, candidates were informed that they would be able to write at their nearest exam centre. Maynier thanked principals and teachers for developing and executing contingency plans to assist candidates.

Education activist Hendrick Makaneta said the fact that other learners could not attend classes due to protests was a cause for great concern.

“We appeal to the government to find a way to resolve issues of workers before they escalate to tension levels,” Makaneta said.

Provincial ANC education spokesperson Khalid Sayed said blame should, however, be directed towards Mobility MEC Daylin Mitchell.

“While we agree that the timing of the taxi shutdown was unfortunate and negatively affected the learners, we must caution the MEC not to be disingenuous by shifting the blame to the taxi industry purely.

“He must blame his MEC of Mobility who has consistently and continuously failed the taxi industry since he assumed that office. The only time he has successfully intervened on the taxi industry-related matters is when the national government, through the office of Minister Mbalula, was involved.”