Government runs scared on schools

Only Grades 6 and 11 will return to the classroom today with those schools ready for Grade Rs also allowed to reopen, says Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. Rapidly rising pandemic figures forced the minister to backtrack on her plans for more grades to return.

The Limpopo department of education has taken a decision to delay the return of Grade R pupils to school today, claiming the province was still considering other factors that could affect the return of the children.

The province’s MEC for basic education, Polley Boshielo, said they were in consultation with Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. The Limpopo Command Council reported that by last week, only one school in the Mogalakwena, Mokopane area, remained closed due to Covid-19 related matters and 10 pupils were infected.

Boshielo said Grade Rs were supposed to return to school today but “we considered various aspects which have led to the new date for their return on Wednesday, 29 July.

“But the arrangement does not hinder schools that had already applied and granted reopening for different grades,” she said.

“We will adjust the reopening phases based on the risk-adjusted strategy, which is a considered attempt to balance our approach to opening schools taking into account all factors,” she said.

Parents from different regions said they were delighted by the delay as they were scared to send their children back to school amid ballooning Covid-19 infections.

“My child is all I have to myself. Losing him to Covid-19 would be fatal,” said Tshilipopo Molewa of Morutji village in Bolobedu.

“I am happy that the MEC stopped parents from sending their children to school during this trying time.”

Another Grade R parent, Zanele Maseko of Marble-Hall in Sekhukhune, said she has suspended going to work because she wanted to take care of her child until after Level 1 of the lockdown.

Maseko, who owns a travel agency in the city of Polokwane but married in Tzaneen, said: “Children are a gift from God. They need to be raised with love and joy, like we were raised by our parents in the dark ages.

“But now the world is faced with a dangerous incurable disease that threatens lives.

“It is only right that we take care of our own children as this pandemic is rearing its ugly head,” Maseko said.