South Africa's grade 12 learners are facing the pressure with only a month left before they have to sit down for their final exams.
Matriculants all over the country are dealing with study stress, but also the never-ending disturbance of loadshedding as they prepare for their upcoming finals, which will kick off with language exams on the 31st of October, 2022.
Because of the power outages, learners are often left without the resources they need to study.
Studying at night with no electricity means the loss of internet access to past papers, online notes/study materials and light to see; this poses a threat to the efficiency of a learner's study methods, which can place a heavy strain on them.
KwaZulu-Natal's MEC, Mbali Frazer (during a visit to a high school in the province), says they are appealing to Eskom to not implement loadshedding while learners are writing.
"We will try, as much as we don't have enough resources, but as the Department [of Education] we are going to try and do some means where we can; we will try and provide generators, but to be honest with you, we are mostly relying on Eskom to do what is expected of them to do, so that our exams are not getting disturbed because of loadshedding," says the MEC.
Although loadshedding is now on a schedule, which learners can use to plan ahead, the disruption it causes is still frustrating.
The MEC said the Department has set an ambitious target of an 80% pass rate, after a 0.8% decline in last year's results.
Frazer also said that the Department has planned to increase the number of diploma and bachelor passes, the number of schools with a 100% pass rate, and has set a target of more than 90% for languages.
