The Gauteng education department has angered parents by taking tablets from matrics during the crucial time for final examinations preparations.

Schools had until last Thursday to return all tablets to the department, according to a circular from the North Johannesburg district office which Sowetan has seen.

"All the schools that are part of the Grade 12 ICT (information and communications technology) project are requested to retrieve the tablet devices distributed to Grade 12 learners earlier this year.

"It is very important that all the tablets are collected by the 29th [of] September 2016 to allow all the processes of flashing, reloading of content and repairing the damaged tablets to take place in time.

"This is done to ensure that tablets are ready for distribution when schools re-open in January 2017," said the circular.

Angry parents and a teacher said schools had, in fact, been collecting tablets since the second week of September.

Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi introduced tablets amid much fanfare last year, saying they were ushering in a new era of quality education. Part of the R37-billion paperless classroom project, Lesufi promised the tablets would contain learning material such as textbooks and past exam question papers.

"Panyaza is taking tablets while children are about to write exams, how reasonable is that?" asked Marks Ramasike, a Soweto-based member of the Association of School Governing Bodies.

Ramasike said the association's members had asked principals to halt retrievals but to no avail.

"Principals are saying 'you know [pupils'] homes are not safe'.

"But it's the department that gave out tablets without consulting us as parents. Now they're coming up with excuses."

William Zulu, a member of Association of Parents in School Governance in Ekurhuleni, said parents were demanding the tablets back. "They should take them after the final examinations. Why is [Lesufi] taking them now? Schools are not yet closed," said Zulu.

"Don't forget that children don't have all textbooks. They're sharing textbooks. But each child [in schools I know] has a tablet. It's not right to take them now. As parents we're saying #RetrievalOfTabletsNowMustFall," Zulu said.

A teacher in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, said he believed the department had pushed to retrieve tablets now to minimise the risk of losing some of them. "We struggled last year to get matrics to bring them after writing their last exam.

"Our school has now retrieved the majority of them. The deputy principal has been pestering pupils since the second week [of September] to submit them," he said.

According to the department, 5200 tablets were reported stolen last year and 3300 were unaccounted for. It retrieved 56 000.

Lesufi's acting spokesman Oupa Bodibe denied the department had taken all tablets.

"The process of retrieving tablets will commence fully after the year-end examinations," he said.

"Currently, we started retrieving only the broken ones. The tablets are learners' tools used for learning and thus they require them for examinations preparations."