‘Basic education’s staggered approach aims to minimise overcrowding’

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says her department’s staggered approach will minimise overcrowding at schools.

Learners in grades five and eight will be the last to return to class on August 31.

The aim of the staggering return is to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus among learners, teachers and staff at schools.

Motshekga was responding to a question by IFP Member of Parliament Lindinkosi Ngcobe during a virtual sitting of the National Assembly.

“It is now with the degree of comfort to say under very difficult circumstances, we are on course to rescue the ruin that  this pandemic had  placed on our education system. We have taken [an] extra-ordinary measures to combat and manage the spread of  the epidemic in our sector.”

“We have indeed adopted a staggered approach for the reopening of  schools to avoid congestion. This staggered approach says we are staggering. It’s not just a term. We are not bringing everybody to the school at the same time, there is no overcrowding of staff rooms. There is no overcrowding of classes because we have staggered the approach,” explained the minister.

NATU against more learners returning to school:

The National Teachers Union (NATU) says it is opposed to having more learners returning to school on Monday.

This as the Basic Education Department is phasing in the return of certain grades of learners to complete the 2020 academic year.

Natu’s Allen Thompson explains why they are against the return of more pupils: