Teachers, parents and pupils remain in limbo over whether schools will stay open as discussions continue in government after teachers’ unions proposed that schools be closed amid the surge of Covid-19 infections.
The trade-off between keeping schools open to salvage the academic year, versus closing them as coronavirus infections rise daily, has been extensively considered in the past months. Schools were closed for more than two months after the government imposed a nationwide lockdown.
They were, however, opened for matriculants and grade 7s on June 8, while more grades returned to physically attend school on July 6.
On Sunday, after meetings by basic education minister Angie Motshekga with trade unions and provincial education MECs, basic education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said the minister was preparing a comprehensive report for government structures. He said the report would be dealt with by the cabinet and the national coronavirus command council, but did not indicate when this would happen.
On Friday the five recognised teachers’ unions — the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa), the SA Teachers Union (SAOU), the National Teachers Union (Natu) and the Professional Educators Union (PEU) — met Motshekga and said the reported cases and closure of schools were causing anxiety and affecting teaching and learning.
“The system is not capable of attending to the psychosocial effects at the schools,” the unions said in their submissions. “The affect of this is demonstrated by the level of stress experienced by both our principals and teachers. This has increased the rate of absenteeism by the teachers either on self-isolation or quarantine.”
They said that learners testing positive for the coronavirus affected the attendance of both learners and teachers because the schools were either closed or forced to remain open, with a consequent increase in transmissions.
The unions submitted that schools should be closed with immediate effect to allow the peak of the pandemic and winter to pass. This time would be used to attend to outstanding issues such as the provision of water, building toilets and additional classes.
They proposed that schools should be reopened at the end of August, subject to a review of the development of the epidemic. . The unions said the education department should provide teachers with the necessary tools to work from home and prepare work for the reopening of schools. Grade 12 pupils should be given priority with the opening of schools.
Kerry Mauchline, a spokesperson for Western Cape education MEC Debbie Schäfer, said the Western Cape was not seeing a mass spreading of Covid-19 at schools and there was no evidence of a greater risk for individuals at schools than elsewhere.
“We have communicated such to the national government when they requested statistics and we were asked for our input on it,” she said.
However, Mauchline added that the decision to keep schools open or closed was one for the national cabinet to make.
On Friday, Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the decision to open schools was expert-driven and that any decision to close schools should be shaped by the views of experts. But he said it was up to the national government to make the decision.
Lesufi said only a fraction of Gauteng’s more than 2,000 schools have had to close temporarily as a result of the virus.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.