SEDC Repurposes Ipelegeng For Schools Cleaning
Ipelegeng workers in South East District Council (SEDC) will be able to plan better, following the district council’s decision to extend Ipelegeng employment from three to 10 months in schools.
The workers will be under the supervision of headmasters since they will be cleaning the school environment and lavatories regularly. This is done so as to beef-up cleanliness in schools, especially in the primary school grounds.
Parents and teachers have recently complained that the schools were not clean enough as a way of adhering to the coronavirus- induced standards set by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
“The number of our Ipelegeng workers has increased because we have to increase cleaners in all schools. We have 18 primary schools, which need to be cleaned after every two hours or less, especially toilets,” SEDC council secretary, Nelson Mogapi said.
“Therefore, we are forced to employ over 60 people for us to adhere to required standards of cleanliness in schools. All employed workers for schools will be under the supervision of school management, but council would pay them.
“We are going to give them protective clothes and they will only work for six hours in a day and be paid P567.” He said the exercise would also help to temporarily reduce the rate of unemployment in the area.
“The council secretary said SEDC was trying all within its power to ensure that all requirements set by health officials for schools were met and even that their workers adhere to them. “We do train our workers on how to conduct themselves during this time and we are not going to compromise the standards,” he said.
“The school management will have to ensure that the classrooms are cleaned after classes. Our team is on the field ensuring that when schools open, everything that students will need is on place.”
Meanwhile, on another issue, Mogapi said he hopes that the number of people who would be given aid through phase two of the COVID-19 food relief programme drops since some have gone back to work.
“We are going to be governed by the guidelines that we would be given by the COVID-19 task team,” he said.
During phase one, Tlokweng Sub-District Council assessed 13,414 people, but only 6,145 were approved in the area.