About 22 241 Grade 12 learners are expected to attend the spring vacation classes and camps schedule to take five days throughout the province of Mpumalanga from 04-08 October 2021.

The Mpumalanga Department of Education have set aside R28, 251,896 in contributing to provide meals and transport for learners and staff, along with compensation for teachers involved in the programme. The MEC for Education, Bonakele Majuba explained this spring classes as a way to push the learners before their final year examination.

Final year examination, have been set to commence from 27 October 2021. But before that spring classes for 2021 will take place in 120 centres, aiming to accommodate all 194 schools that performed below 70% the previous year of 2020, including those repeating the and those upgrading marks. However the requirement for the centres is that the principal should have resulted in over 70% final year mark for three consecutive years starting 2018.

The camp is meant is to offer the matriculates an opportunity to put focus on the 11 enrolled subjects being: English First Additional Language, Mathematics, Mathematical Literacy, Physical Sciences, Life Sciences, Business Science, Agricultural Science, Accounting, Economics, History and Geography.

“We wish to urge our learners to take advantage of this opportunity which will greatly help close the knowledge gap, content recovery and to prepare leaners for the final examinations. I also request parents and members of the community in general to encourage these learners and to create a favourable environment towards the success of these classes.” said MEC.

It is made mandatory by the department that learners are to register not more than three listed subjects for the camp. The PAM tariff has approved to remunerate teachers and Centre Managers for their participation. Learners will receive food and transportation, the MEC will also visit two of the centres to check on the progress.

Reaching out to the learners of Ramoshidi technical, they claimed to be looking forward to this opportunity saying the spring camp will help produce good grades and contribute to their university admission requirements. They expressed their gratitude towards the chance given, one of the learners mentioned how important the camp is to them, “Covid-19 has ripped us off of time, we wasted plenty of our learning time sitting at home worrying about our studies, this camp will help with catching up.” said the learner.

The MEC will visit Emakhazeni Boarding School on Tuesday 05 October and Morgenzon Centre on Thursday 07 October. The class of 2021 is advised to confirm information with their schools and to take part in the initiated Spring Camp.