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Reopening schools will exacerbate inequalities: Education Expert

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Distinguished Professor in the Department of Education Policy Studies at Stellenbosch University, Jonathan Jansen says reopening schools will reveal inequalities in our society and exacerbate them.

Professor Jansen, on Wednesday, advised that the 2020 academic year be called off due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. He further suggested that schools promote Grade 1 to Grade 11 learners to the next grades, but have a catch-up plan in place.

Speaking to Morning Live on Thursday, Jansen says, “One of the consequences of reopening schools is that you will see the inequalities that already exist and they will be exacerbated because while we were away, the 20% of schools in our estimation have continued to have online learning because they have the bandwidth because they have laptops at home because they have schools with Google platform facilities and all those kind of things.”

“But for 80% of our kids there are no such facilities available and so to simply reopen as normal is to almost ensure that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is just wrong. I don’t think we should try to cram everything we’ve lost until the end of the school year. It will make a bad situation worse,” Jansen adds.

In the video below, Professor Jonathan Jansen elaborates his views:

 ‘You can’t scrap the whole year’

The viewers who called into Morning Live have expressed mixed feelings to Jansen’s comments. Not all agree with Prof Jansen’s call.

Ernest from Ladybrand says, “Firstly, I want to say I don’t agree with what Professor Jansen has said. You can’t scrap the whole year because it will create a commotion in the education sector. The government and the education sector must sit down just like they have done in the health department, come up with a plan on how best to salvage the remaining learning course.”

In the video below, are the caller’s views:

INFOGRAPHIC: SA’s COVID-19 response in stages:

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