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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has denied her department ever announced that schools would reopen in the next week, saying at least a month of preparations was needed before the first batch of learners walk into classrooms.
“We never said learners are going back to school next week,” she said at a briefing on Thursday.
There have been uncertainties and anxiety around the return of learners to school at the time when the world was still fighting the spread of the fatal Covid-19 coronavirus.
This has been exacerbated by unofficial reports with some suggesting schools would be reopening next week.
Read: SA plans phased reopening of schools from next week
Motshekga emphasised that schools will only reopen “only if it is safe to do so and the environment allows”.
Having said that, she announced that their plan was for Grades 7 and 12 to return to school on June 1.
Before that, Motshekga said, officials including some office-based staff will report for duty on Monday to prepare and ensure readiness for the ultimate school reopening.
She said school management teams were expected back at work on May 11, followed by teachers a week later on May 18.
Motshekga said her department has been in extensive consultations with stakeholders of the department – including among others, unions and parents – and that they still have to meet some conditions presented to them before children were back in classrooms.
She said the “principle of opening schools at the right time was accepted once all the conditions have been met”.
Meanwhile, some of the things to be taken care of before learners return were water for schools with no running water, procuring and delivery of personal protective equipment (PPE) for learners, teachers and support staff, as well as their Covid-19 related orientation and training, among others.
Motshekga said lots of work was done in the past weeks to prepare for the reopening of schools.
She said decisions taken were based on scientific considerations and they were advised to adopt a phased approach in the reopening of schools.
“Uppermost in our planning is the health and safety of our school communities, particularly learners and teachers,” the minister said.
She said standard operating procedures were developed for the containment and management of Covid-19 for childcare facilities, schools and school communities.
“The standard operating procedures will provide guidelines for all administrators on the steps to be undertaken in order to prevent the spread and manage cases of Covid-19,” Motshekga said.
She said physical distancing will be maintained in classrooms and there will be no more than two learners sharing a desk.
The minister further promised that her department will provide face masks for learners to wear throughout the school day, classrooms will be sanitised prior to start of school day and learners’ hands will be sanitised on entering classrooms.
There will also be limited movement of learners between classes and no clustering of desks in classrooms.
“A basic, essential hygiene and sanitation package has been developed and provinces are procuring the critical items. These include cleaning and disinfection materials, PPE, sanitisers, hand-washing soap, gloves, cloth masks and thermometers,” she said.
Motshekga said learners and educators will be screened on the reopening of schools.
“Temperature checks will be administered and learners or staff members who present with raised temperatures will be considered for isolation and testing,” she said.
Motshekga said the impact of Covid-19 was going to be felt for a long time to come.
Its impact has so far, among others, led to the postponement of May/June examinations.
“The exams were due to be written by more than 350 000, mainly part-time candidates from May 4 and conclude on June 26. Due to the lockdown, we have not been able to complete our preparations which include the printing and distributions of question papers, the appointment of invigilators, markers and the general readiness in the marking centres,” she said.
“The examination will therefore be merged with the November examinations. A new timetable for the merged examinations will be communicated urgently as part of preparing the system for the biggest matric examination ever seen in the country.”
Meanwhile, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande said students would not be returning to lecture halls any time soon, but announced plans that will assist in saving the academic year.
“Guided by the work and decisions of the National Command Council, we have decided not to resume with campus-based academic activity throughout the PSET (post-school education and training) sector, including all universities and TVET colleges, both public and private, during the level 4 lockdown period,” Nzimande said.
“The only exception will be the controlled return of final year clinical training (medical) students, under strict conditions, to also directly assist with the health management campaign of the department of health.
The risks of a return to normal campus-based activity for thousands of students and staff are simply too great and cannot function successfully outside of the national context of a general lockdown,” he said
Nzimande added that while the aim was to save the academic year, this needed to be done responsibly.
“Our responsibility is to lower the infection curve. We must save the 2020 academic year, but not at the expense of lives. Thirdly, our efforts to save the academic year must avoid worsening the infection curve,” he said.
Among other plans, is the development and implementation of “multi-modal remote learning systems (digital, analogue and physical delivery of learning materials) to provide a reasonable level of academic support to all our students at all institutions to resume academic learning and teaching support”.
“As we are in an unprecedented emergency, we have to use all available tools to reach our students fully cognisant that it will not substitute the need for contact learning when conditions permit. This we will do making sure that no student or institution is left behind,” Nzimande said.
He said learning material will be physically delivered to some students where required and where there are no immediate digital means, while others will get laptops, data and connectivity to support remote learning.
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