Selby Makgotho and Tebogo Tshipi

Selby Makgotho and Tebogo Tshipi

A top Limpopo education official's luxury car was attacked and damaged by enraged pupils at a school near Polokwane after a number of a teacher's pass marks were overturned.

The teacher now faces a disciplinary hearing after she allegedly allowed 11 students in grade 11 to proceed to grade 12, when in fact they had failed.

The back windscreen of the top-of-the-range Mercedes- Benz Kompressor belonging to Ndo Mangala, spokesman for the Limpopo Education Department, was shattered when he and another high-ranking official, Polly Boshielo, visited the school yesterday morning on a fact-finding mission.

Mangala said that they found the teacher had "committed an irregularity" in giving pupils the wrong reports. He said it was clear that the students had failed.

Lessons at the Molaotsi Secondary School in Blood River outside Polokwane had to be abandoned when the scholars demanded they be allowed to progress to grade 12.

But, according to the schedule at the school, all 11 scholars failed and must now repeat grade 11.

A departmental investigation revealed the teacher had incorrectly written "Pass" on their year-end reports. Confronted with her actions, the teacher said she had failed to consult the schedule when she issued the reports last month.

This came to light when schools re-opened this year.

"When we asked the teacher in question, she pointed out that she had [been negligent] when she wrote the reports. She had committed gross irregularities, which had led to confrontations and tensions between the principal and the pupils" Mangala said.

In terms of the law, anyone found guilty of committing such irregular acts with regard to promotional reports will be dismissed.