Most schools across SA ready to open, says Motshekga

Some 95% of SA’s schools will finally reopen on Monday for pupils in Grades 7 and 12, 11 weeks after shutting in compliance with the declaration of the national state of disaster prompted by Covid-19.

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga on Sunday declared most of the country’s schools were ready to open and receive teachers and pupils, after she aborted last Monday’s restart.

“We can now say with confidence that about 95% of our schools have been ably provided with the Covid-19-related imperatives,” Motshekga said at a late afternoon briefing, and no school would reopen if it was “not ready to do so”.

Six of the country’s provinces have been classified as low risk for opening on Monday, an improvement from a week ago, when only two provinces were ready for schools to open.

The Eastern Cape is one of three provinces with a medium risk classification for its state of readiness.

Figures presented show that only 18.9% of personal protective equipment (PPE) had been supplied in the province, but a provincial education spokesperson said on Sunday night that this figure likely related to last week’s situation.

When pupils report for school today, they will undergo induction and orientation, and also receive counselling from teachers, who have been at school for a week.

Motshekga said the state of readiness varied across provinces due to vandalism, disruptions in the deliveries of essential items to schools, delays in the induction and orientation of teachers and support staff, and failure to provide water and sanitation materials.

Some 1,672 schools were vandalised during the lockdown, which affected their ability to operate optimally.

In some instances, schools had received faulty thermometers for screening staff and pupils.

Eastern Cape education MEC Fundile Gade did not participate in Motshekga’s briefing on Sunday, as he was addressing the provincial command council.

Pulumani said that as at Friday, 76% of schools had received the required PPE to allow them to operate safely.

“There were still deliveries taking place the whole of Friday and over the weekend. We are probably about 80% ready now and we will do mopping up on Monday and finish on Tuesday.”

Pulumani said the challenge in the province was the disruptions caused by SMMEs that wanted to participate in the distribution of equipment.

This had an impact on deliveries in Alfred Nzo district, Port St Johns, Lusikisiki and the Chris Hani district, especially around Komani.

Gade had met with SMMEs in key areas to address concerns.

He said 940 water tanks were ordered for schools and 695 had been delivered by Friday, with the remainder due to be delivered on Monday.

Motshekga said alternative measures would be put in place for pupils attending schools that were unable to reopen on Monday. This included placing pupils at neighbouring schools that met the health, safety and social distancing measures, using underused spaces in boarding schools and placing some in camps.

Where necessary, provinces would follow protocols to obtain parental permission for these measures.

She said the teaching and learning programmes provided online would continue and parents who were uneasy about sending their children back to school should follow the law to ensure that their children’s right to basic education was unhindered.

Pulumani said Eastern Cape schools without sanitation would not open and pupils would be moved to other schools.

On the issue of school camps, he said this had been undertaken in the past for matric pupils, who were provided with meals and a place to sleep.

“There has been a proposal to move Grade 12 pupils again. Grade 7 pupils will be too young for that,” he said.

Motshekga said the issue of teachers with comorbidities would be addressed through an agreement with labour unions.

She said the regulations published by the department allowed for deviations for small schools, as well as special, independent and private schools.

The minister said the “new normal” approach to implementing education plans would continue, with “regular and strict internal and external monitoring and evaluation mechanisms”.