Most South Africans aren’t keen to send children back to classroom

SOUTH Africans are reluctant to send their children back to school, while most are comfortable with returning to their workplace, according to recent survey findings.

Results show that many South Africans were feeling anxious about sending children back to school or resuming their normal working routine. An Ipsos survey discovered that only two in every 10 (20%) online South Africans were either “very comfortable” or “somewhat comfortable” for their children to return to school.

A third (31%) of respondents worldwide were comfortable sending their children back.

Minister of Basic Education Angie

Motshekga recently announced that Grade 7 and Grade 12 students would return to school on Monday.

She announced the precautions required to keep pupils and teachers safe, but added that it was impossible to guarantee that no one would be infected with Sars-CoV-2. Parents could decide whether or not to send their children back to school.

The study was conducted online from May 7-10, said director and political analyst at Ipsos SA, Mari Harris. The sample for this study consisted of approximately 1000 individuals in several countries.

The survey represents the views of South Africans who have regular access to the internet.

Despite having to home-school those children that won’t return to school, a quarter of online South Africans (24%) said they would definitely not send their children to school over the next few weeks.

Four out of five South Africans canvassed said they were opposed to sending their children back to school at this stage.

Almost half of working South Africans (47%) canvassed said they would have no problem returning to work.

The rest were either not comfortable returning to work or said they wouldn’t return to work in the next few weeks. |