Basic Education satisfied with level of uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among staff, learners

Basic Education Department says it is satisfied with the level of uptake of COVID-19 vaccines among staff and learners.

Director-General Mweli Matanzima says they are currently encouraging everybody to vaccinate because it is in everyone’s interest.  He says the department will wait for the recommendations of the task team to be set up by the President before adopting any vaccine mandates at schools.

Briefing parliament’s portfolio committee on Basic Education on school readiness for next year, Matanzima says when he last checked the figure for vaccinated staff stood at 80%.

“We could not delineate the figures between teaching staff and non-teaching staff because all of them were vaccinated together. The issue of making vaccination mandatory I thought the President has just announced that he’s going to establish a task team. It will help us a lot. I was part of the Minister’s delegation to France where vaccination is mandatory. They are at 90% we are far below, But I think we need to wait for the task team that the president is going to establish.”