Thousands of teachers apply to work from home

A total of 6,275 teachers with underlying medical conditions, such as diabetes and hypertension, have applied to work from home in four provinces.

The applications, according to figures supplied to Times Select by provincial education departments, are as follows:

● Western Cape: 2,800;

● Northern Cape: 1,924;

● Gauteng: 1,000; and

● Mpumalanga: 551.

The remaining five provinces did not respond to media queries.

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the high number of applications for comorbidity leave was “an emerging risk challenge, as this could affect available teaching capacity”.

This comes as more than six million pupils in grades R, 1, 2, 3, 6, 10 and 11 are due to return to the country’s 23,675 public schools on July 6.

Western Cape education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said extensive planning and work was done to prepare teachers and pupils to work from home.

She said grade 10 to 12 lessons were developed using “self-directed learning as a frame of reference”.

“The core lessons aim to capture the core knowledge, skills, attitudes and values related to the content topic in different subjects.”

Hammond said lesson objectives were indicated and key resources, such as textbooks, identified.

Northern Cape education department spokesperson Lehuma Ntuane said teachers working from home because of comorbidities were requested to prepare weekly support packages and homework for pupils.

“These support packages will be sent to parents, with guidelines on how they should assist the learners.

“Teachers will mark the work and provide feedback to the learner.”

He said the teachers interacted with pupils and were “not just sitting at home doing nothing”.

Mpumalanga education department spokesperson Jasper Zwane said in addition to the 551 applications for comorbidity leave, they had received 10 applications from non-teaching staff.

“Automatically, all staff with doctors’ notes will work from home, while all other processes, including an agreement on action plan, are being considered.”

He said a committee dealing with comorbidities was established at its head office.

Briefing the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) last week, basic education minister Angie Motshekga said: “We have quite a number of teachers who have declared that they have comorbidities.

We have a number of teachers who have declared that they have comorbidities Angie Motshekga

BASIC EDUCATION MINISTER

“The rules state that it is a doctor who can declare if you can stay [at home].

“You can’t decide [to stay at home] because you are 60 and have diabetes. If it is controlled, you must go to work.”

Responding to a parliamentary question from the DA on whether more teachers will be employed to teach all the split classes in the different grades, Motshekga said there would be no need to appoint more teachers in large numbers.

“It is not expected that the demand for additional teachers due to social distancing will be significant, as the main constraint is the availability of classroom space.”

She said that schools would use various models to accommodate learners, including teaching grades on alternate times or alternate days or weeks.

“Therefore, the same number of teachers will be used to teach in terms of the trimmed curriculum and reworked timetables.”

Asked whether teachers would be paid overtime for the increased workload resulting from the split classrooms, she said the plan currently was to maintain the workload of teachers.

“This will be possible within the context of trimmed curricula and reworked timetables, to accommodate social distancing. Where educators will be required to work additional hours, it will be within reasonable limits, also taking into account that all extra-curricula activities have been suspended. ”—