Durban - A Crawford College matric pupil will have five more minutes an hour to write each of his exam papers because he suffers from medical conditions.
The Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday ordered the MEC for Education, Peggy Nkonyeni, to give him more time during his exams after he brought an urgent application.
The teenager has been diagnosed with neurological impairment known as attention deficit disorder and narcolepsy, a chronic brain disorder that involves poor control of sleep-wake cycles and usually drowsiness.
For both these disorders, the department allows pupils to apply for extra time to write exam papers. However, in his case, his initial application was submitted too late and was turned down.
The pupil said in court papers that he was diagnosed with the first condition early this year and was given medication. Despite taking his medication, he was continuously sleepy in the day, even though he slept a lot at night.
He told his school and was told he needed to provide evidence, in the form of reports from a doctor and psychologists, that he had a learning barrier and that he needed to prove there was a clear diagnosis, as well as a history of its being an academic barrier.
In June he visited a specialist neurologist who diagnosed that he could be suffering from narcolepsy, of which one of the symptoms was sleepiness. To verify this, tests were conducted at St Augustine’s Hospital which confirmed the diagnosis.
After his parents had sent an e-mail to the school about his conditions, Crawford College allowed him five minutes more per hour to write about four or five tests as well as for the trial exams from July to September.
On October 20, he started his main exams and wrote the information technology practical paper. He had been allowed 3 hours and 15 minutes, instead of 3 hours.
The school then applied to the department asking that he be given more time to write all his exams.
But the request was denied and he was told that he had to make his application at the beginning of the year.
The pupil said he had been told of this only after October 26. The case was urgent because there were some papers that were “rather difficult”, he said.
If he had to wait for the department to review its decision, the exams would probably be over. He added that pupils with difficulties fell into certain categories and were allowed extra time. He fell into two of them. If the application was not granted, it might affect his performance and finding a place at a tertiary institution.
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The Mercury