POLOKWANE – No chores, parties or loud music during the final exam period.

This is the plea given by the Limpopo Economic Development, Environment and Tourism MEC Rodgers Monama to Gr 12 learners and their parents/guardians.

In wishing the Class of 2022 well for their National Senior Certificate (NSC) Exams that began on Monday (October 31), Monama said the pressure and spotlight rests on this group of Gr 12 learners as they are the only group to write their final exams without fear of Covid-19 variants and free from any lockdown restrictions.

He said it is expected of them to outshine the Class of 2020 and 2021 respectively.

Monama advised parents/guardians of Gr 12s to support them by suspending time-consuming household chores and restricting parties and other night entertainment from anyone writing and to give them space to study and revise until the completion of exams.

“It is important to keep in mind that the Class of 2022 is a special class faced with challenges of load-shedding, water shortages, fuel and transport hikes as well as stressors associated with acquiring of space within the institutions of higher learning. We cannot afford to add to their quadruple burden of worries resulting from unnecessary noise pollution,” he said.

Monama has urged all liquor restaurants situated in proximity to institutions of leaning to drastically minimize their noise or music during examination time.

“Complaints of noise or loud music from liquor outlets during leaners’ examination time will receive urgent attention from our Liquor Affairs Unit together with the South African Police Service, equipped with handcuffs and bakkies aimed at enforcing compliance,” a statement read.

Monama said liquor outlets are critical for job creation and are also a pillar towards economic recovery efforts adding that liquor restaurants are the heartbeat of entertainment and key to tourist attraction.

“We hereby call on liquor traders to also report fellow non-complying liquor traders to the department and most importantly, the department calls on civil society to report illegal trading in alcohol as well as selling of alcohol to anyone under the age of 18 or students within the basic education sector,” he said.

Meanwhile, Education MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya said the current cohort of matric candidates have the potential to change the perception about the province’s perfomance.

Limpopo has over 140 000 learners enrolled for NSC exams this year and over 1 700 examination centres adminstered the first paper on Monday morning.

Lerule-Ramakhanya said intervention strategies employed since early this year will go a long way in changing the narrative and has also urged parents, guardians and all relevant stakeholders to rally behind learners.