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Gauteng schools ready to welcome learners back to class on Monday: Lesufi

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Gauteng Education MEC, Panyaza Lesufi, says the schooling system is ready to welcome learners back to class on Monday.

The academic calendar was moved from the 27th January to the 15th of February due to second wave of the COVID-19.

Lesufi says there are, however, problems with last minute placements, including that of over 30 000 learners who had failed to submit all the required documents.

He says learning materials and PPE have been delivered to schools and that they’re making progress in finding substitute teachers.

“Unfortunately Premier we lost almost 34 educators through COVID-19 in our province, we are now in the process of replacing those educators, through temporary appointments,” he says.

“We have also welcomed 4 000 new educators’ assistants and we want to thank our President for this, they will provide additional support to all our teachers, to all our schools in Gauteng.”

Learners yet to be placed

Over 2 000 learners are yet to be placed in Gauteng schools.

Lesufi says the delay is mainly due to parents not submitting all the necessary documentation for the Grade 1 and 8 online applications.

Another problem the system is still struggling with is the choice of school. Every year parents complain about children being placed in unsuitable schools, schools that are far away, or schools that they didn’t apply to. Lesufi says the crux of this argument is that parents have a preference for certain schools in the province and those schools understandably fill up quickly.

“The last part that is a major problem within the placement of learners is that the majority of parents prefer certain schools and all those schools 418 to be precise are full to the bring we can’t even add an additional desk or chair, we are pleading with parents to go with the alternative schools we have given them so that we can have our children back on the 15 February,” he says.

Lesufi says learning materials and PPE have been delivered. He expressed regret that 34 teachers have died due to COVID-19.

The Chairperson of the Committee on Basic Education in Parliament, Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, said they are satisfied that the province will be ready to welcome learners on 15 February.

“Gauteng is ready, we can confirm that we are happy that they are ready to accept, teachers have actually started today, to accept the learners on the 15th and they have guaranteed to us that there will be PPE in the form of a mask and a sanitizer and there would be food for the kids to eat and all the schools are adhering to 1.5 metres and instead of platooning they will alternate days like they were doing last year.”

The portfolio committee has, however, raised concern about the issue of the millions paid to service providers between June and August last year to sanitise and deep clean schools.

Lesufi is under a lot of political pressure following revelations that the department spent more than R400 million on sanitising and deep-cleaning schools last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gauteng Education has said the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) started interviewing its officials as part of investigations on whether there were any irregularities.

Lesufi says he has also written to the Auditor General regarding investigations into the matter.

SIU probes education officials over PPE spending:

 

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