Pupils from poor families continue to lag behind

WHILE the impact of the tightened restrictions will be devastating for all sectors of the economy, the biggest losers of the adjusted level 4 lockdown will be poor pupils who, once again, will find themselves languishing at home.

When announcing the adjusted level 4 lockdown on Sunday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa also revealed that all public and private schools would be closed for the winter break, starting tomorrow, and that all schools should be closed by Friday.

Perhaps the long-term consequence of the Covid-19 lockdowns is the widening of the pre-existing education disparities.

The Covid-19 lockdowns will also reverse the learning gains achieved over time. Poor pupils from no-fee schools (those that serve children from low-income families) have missed out on so much of contact learning, since the first hard lockdown last year, that the direct results of this will be felt throughout our education system for many years to come.

Even when the government started relaxing the regulations, pupils from poor families and schools continued to be short-changed as they had to attend schools on a rotational basis.

Their counterparts from wellequipped schools, on the other hand, were uninterrupted due to the schools' ability to follow physical distancing protocols.

There is no doubt that the transition to online learning has been of major benefit for pupils from well-resourced schools and families.

However, the same cannot be said for children from poor schools and households. Online learning can be sustained when children have access to a computer with internet connection, a desk and a quiet workspace and parents who can supervise them. However, for millions of pupils from rural and township schools, online learning will remain a pipe dream.

It should, therefore, not be a surprise when pupils from poor schools and households continue to lag behind in terms of achieving the education outcomes expected of them.

We should all hang our heads in shame that we allowed a situation where funds that were meant to be used for Covid-19 ended up in the pockets of greedy and corrupt politicians. This money should have been used to improve the lives of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.