Nearly 90 positive COVID-19 cases have come from what has been labelled a “superspreader event” that took place at Tin Roof in Claremont. As a result, many schools have cancelled their matric balls to prevent posing a danger to healthy students, and reduce the potential to spread the virus.
The Department of Basic Education has also warned against matric balls. According to Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga, gatherings such as matric balls pose a risk to learners who may contract the virus.
“There are two risks to this, the first one is that you could organise a gathering where learners are at a high risk of being infected and when they are infected then it means they will not be able to write the exam for as long as their results indicate that they are positive,” said Mhlanga.
“The only time they will be allowed to sit in an exam will be in May and June in 2021. The second risk is that the focus will be too much on these parties and move away from the real work, which is the revision.”
Some schools have proposed live-streaming their farewells to allow pupils and families to witness the event from the safety of their homes.
The matric exams are just over two weeks away, and Matric learners will not be allowed to write their National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam if they have positive COVID-19 results.
With only 16 days left to #MatricExams parents and guardians are urged to support the learners who have had their academic year disrupted due to the COVID19 pandemic. You can do it #MatricExamPreparations pic.twitter.com/TavOzKqffX
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) October 19, 2020
Picture: Pixabay
