UNDOCUMENTED LEARNERS: Running the Gauntlet — The matrics caught between xenophobia, paperwork and the classroom door

As close to a million learners sit for this year’s National Senior Certificate (NSC) exams, people of all ages will be vividly recalling the rooms where they sat for their ‘matric finals’, and the nauseating excitement that pervaded those spaces, not to mention the apprehension that came before, or the mixed emotions that followed the ‘pen’s down’ call. It was, is, and will always be a stressful experience. But spare a thought for undocumented learners who, in addition to the standard intensity, have been challenged by additional burdens of hardship this year.