NWU assessments to continue online

The North-West University (NWU) has confirmed that assessments will continue online following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of lockdown level four on 27 June 2021.

The NWU has made the necessary changes to the assessment period to ensure adherence to the adjusted level four regulations. According to a recent communication update, previously scheduled teaching and learning activities will continue online.

Scheduled sit-down assessments will either be rescheduled or changed to online assessments. This, however, is a case of faculty discretion, as some sit-down assessments cannot be converted to online assessments.

Students who need access to laboratories to continue with assessments are advised to wait for “further guidance from their respective faculties,” according to the above mentioned communication update. Researchers will be able to continue with their “on-campus execution of projects and experiments,” but are advised to adhere to all Covid-19 related protocols.

Campus residences will remain open and students opting to stay there during recess will have to comply with the Covid-19 related measures put in place by the NWU.

The NWU has also issued a warning about the “rapid rising of Covid-19 figures across our campuses” as the third wave of the pandemic is growing all around the country.

Louis Jacobs, director of corporate communication at the NWU, emphasised that students should adhere to Covid-19 protocols. “Management can only do so much,” he said. Jacobs added that students who spend their time in the bars and clubs in town contribute to the rapid rising of Covid-19 cases in Potchefstroom.

A message was sent to students on Thursday, 24 June 2021, asking students and staff to report positive Covid-19 tests and instances of students coming into contact with someone that has tested positive for Covid-19. This message includes an online form to streamline the reporting process.

Chélaine de Wet, (22), an honours student in financial accounting at the NWU, said that students neglect to adhere to Covid-19 protocols. “They [students] think that they can’t be affected by Covid-19,” she said. “A lot of students are reckless and irresponsible, they go to bars and clubs,” De Wet continued.

The steady rise of Covid-19 figures in Potchefstroom is higher than the figures for the Mahikeng and Vanderbijlpark campuses.

According to a communication update sent out by the NWU on 25 June 2021, a cumulative total of 832 colleagues, students, contract workers and visitors have tested positive for Covid-19. Contact students on the Potchefstroom campus make up about half of that.