All staff in the education sector will be required to return to work when schools open on July 26 whether they have been vaccinated or not and even if they have been allowed to stay at home up until then due to comorbidities, basic education minister Angie Motshekga said at the weekend.
The minister gave details at a briefing on Saturday of the vaccination programme for the sector, which will target 582,000 people over the next two weeks from June 23 to July 8.
Participating in the vaccination programme is not mandatory, but Motshekga stressed that once schools reopen all staff will be required to return to work.
Teachers in private and public schools regardless of age as well as support staff including cleaners, security personnel and staff of teacher unions and staff who transport pupils to and from school will be vaccinated, Motshekga said.
Over the 14 days of planned vaccinations in the sector, the following will be excluded from the programme: those who have contracted Covid-19 in the past 30 days, have been vaccinated with a Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine under the Sisonke programme, or any person who has received a flu vaccine within the past 14 days. Motshekga said those who are excluded from the education sector programme will have an opportunity to be vaccinated with the general population.
Over the two-week period, Motshekga said schools will remain open because “disruptions would be undesirable”. In 2020, almost half the school year was lost because of cases of Covid-19 during the first two waves. Motshekga said 100 schools out of 25,400 nationwide have been affected by Covid-19 cases and have had to temporarily close.
On Thursday the Gauteng education department reported that 4,700 Covid-19 cases had been identified in the province, resulting in the closure of 20 schools. Though the threat of more infections at schools remains, Motshekga said there is no basis for the closure of all schools.
“The position is that we continue to handle Covid cases according to the differentiated strategy, on a province by province, school by school basis. While there are disruptions in the sector, the majority of our schools remain fairly stable,” she said.
The department’s deputy director-general, Granville Whittle, said 300,000 doses of the J&J vaccine arrived in the country on Thursday. An additional 280,000 doses are expected to be made available for the sector. Dedicated vaccination sites for teachers across the country will be made available during the 14-day period.
Teachers will have to make their own transport arrangements to the vaccination sites.
Motshekga said the doses of the vaccines are expected to cover all personnel in the basic education sector. The amount is, however, subject to change if the figures given by the education department to the health department were incorrect, Motshekga said.
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