On 16 August 2021, the UP SRC put forward a request to UP management for students who were unable to view their marks because of financial arrears and historical debt to be allowed to do so.
The SRC pursued the request after noting that students being unable to see their marks affected them negatively, and that the only way to build proper academic practice was to receive feedback. The SRC claims that blocking students from seeing their marks can be seen as a “punishment of poverty”. In proceeding with the request, the SRC hopes to address the problem of poverty and disadvantaged backgrounds.
In communications posted to the SRC’s Instagram page, it was announced that UP approved the request for financially challenged students to view their marks. This viewing window ran for one week from the day that administration had unblocked the systems. Affected students received an SMS on 30 August informing them of their temporary access to view their results until 3 September. This occurred after the SRC allied with the Institutional Executive, Institutional Governance Structures, nine Faculty Administrations and the Department of Student Affairs to allow all students to view their mid-year and full year marks regardless of their financial situation. The SRC maintains that they will continue to fight until the entire system of blocking student marks is abolished, claiming there is no justification for such actions.
Well I am Tankiso Mothopeng, final year International Relations student. I am 20 years old and prefer to do nothing. Literally my biggest hobby is doing nothing. It’s a miracle how I’ve made it to my final year but I made it. But when I’m not doing nothing, I like to dive deep and head first into people’s business. I like news. I like being the center of information and distributing that information. I guess that why I wanted to be a news journalist.
Social Science student with the dream of one day becoming the head of an international humanitarian organisation. Writes mostly about politics, student governance and health. Kept afloat by Philippians 4:13