A principal of a school in the Western Cape, who requested to remain anonymous, says his school currently does not have the capacity to roll out adequate COVID-19 preventative measures. This is as more grades returned to school on Monday to join Grade 7 and matric learners, who started last month.
The principal says overcrowding and a shortage of teachers are some of the main challenges they are facing. He says the high number of learners per class will make social distancing impossible.
He says they are now considering alternating days for the different grades to attend school.
“We may have to say to the other grades that they’ll have to come in on alternative days because they can’t simply be here everyday. We want the matrics to be here everyday, because of the importance of the matric exam and it’s an entry-level exam, but to have the rest of the children here every single day, we simply do not have the capacity.”
Some educators at the Schotsche Kloof Primary School in the Bo-Kaap have questioned the return of learners in the heart of winter.
Learners in Grades R, 6, and 11 returned to schools yesterday.
“We can see the infections are rising rapidly everyday and yet children are expected to come to school. We have parents that have tested positive, but they send their children which leads to other children getting infected, carrying over the disease … the virus to their families as well as the teachers,” says an educator at Schotsche Kloof Primary, Naeela Gouda.
Homeschooling
Non-Governmental Organisation Equal Education says it is becoming increasingly important to support learning at home for school learners as South Africa battles to bring the effects of COVID-19 under control. This is after a number of schools across the country remained closed yesterday after they were not adequately prepared to receive learners.
“As the return of grades are pushed further back, and while some schools remain closed due to a lack of COVID-19 essentials or because of positive COVID-19 cases, it is becoming increasingly important to support learning at home and to adjust assessment expectations for the year,” says Equal Educator’s CO-Head of Research Hopolang Selebalo.
Disruptions at schools
Meanwhile, the Western Cape Department of Education says anybody who disrupts learning at schools in the province will be reported to the police. This is after a number of schools in the Western Cape were affected by protests yesterday.
The department says protests occurred at nine schools – six in the Eden and Central Karoo Districts, and the other three in the Metro-East District.
Department Spokesperson, Kerry Mauchline, says community members at some of the schools forced learners to return home instead of attending school.
“We want to remind any protesters that only the HoD can close a school. No one else has the right to close a school. Parents have the option now to keep their children at home if they are anxious about COVID-19, but they do not have any right whatsoever to prevent other people’s children from going to school and accessing their constitutional right to basic education,” says WCED Spokesperson, Kerry Mauchline.
The department says close to 400 schools in the province have also applied to phase in more grades.
Below are the latest coronavirus statistics:
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