Angie does new U-turn on pupils’ return to school
Drastic reduction in numbers still not enough for E Cape, says Bhisho
Only grades 6, 11 and R will be allowed to return to school next week, but even this move will not be enough to prevent further unravelling of the Eastern Cape schooling system in the face of Covid-19.
That is the view of MPLs after basic education minister Angie Motshekga announced on Thursday that only these grades were permitted to go back to class on Monday.
“The decision affects all provinces,” ministry spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said.
The decision was taken following a meeting of the Council of Education Ministers earlier on Thursday.
The measure means that grades 1, 2, 3 and 10, as well as schools of skill years 2 and 3, schools for pupils with severe intellectual disabilities, grades R, 1, 2, 3, and final-year (occupational) will stay at home.
It also applies to schools with pupils with severe and profound intellectual disabilities years 1 to 3 and schools with autistic pupils, both the junior group (below 13 years) and final year (18 years and above).
The grades will be phased in during the course of July. The last phase of grades is expected to return to school on August 3.
The Dispatch reported this week that Eastern Cape superintendent-general Themba Kojana has proposed that all pupils in the province except those in matric stay away from school until August 3.
Kojana said he had written to the national department’s director-general, Mathanzima Mweli, to request a deviation from the original July 6 date when grades other than 12 and 7 were scheduled to return to school.
What becomes of that proposal is no longer clear.
Provincial education spokesperson Loyiso Pulumani did not respond to calls or text messages on Thursday night.
On Friday, a new report showing that Eastern Cape schools have failed to meet required health and safety standards since reopening a month ago is set to be presented to the provincial legislature, but what significance that will have in the light of Motshekga’s announcement is also uncertain.
UDM MPL Mncedisi Filtane said if Motshekga and other politicians were so convinced sending even some children back to school was acceptable, provincial legislatures should be operating.
Instead, children were being used as “guinea pigs”.
“The position of the UDM on the reopening of school remains the same. We are saying the winter period should be waited out until August. Nothing has changed for the better since the schools have opened,” Filtane said.
“The only change has been is that everybody, including the MEC and minister, came to understand through their own eyes that it was a mistake to reopen as early as they did. They gambled with children’s lives. Teachers have died in numbers. Scholars are scared. Parents are frightened.”
Filtane cited statistics that pointed to millions of people contracting flu in June and July.
“What quality education are we going to get if we are sending children to death traps? This is premature, as they’re about to find out again. None of these grades should be returning — unless the [ANC] is trying to demonstrate how little they care for the little ones. Why experiment when you see that even teachers are scared?”
DA MPL Yusuf Cassim said the provincial education department had been inept in handling the reopening of schools.
“This delay is not going to solve that problem. The department has had months to prepare for the reopening of schools.
“Simply delaying it will not suddenly make them competent,” he said.
“We cannot leave the safety of our children in the hands of the leadership of this department.”
He said the high number of infections in schools seemed to have been a major factor in
Motshekga’s about-turn.
Meanwhile, education lobby group Equal Education has approached the Pretoria high court asking for a declaratory order that there is a duty on the government to ensure that meals are provided to all pupils who qualify to benefit from the national school nutrition programme.
The organisation is also asking the court to order that, within five days, national and provincial education departments should provide plans to implement their constitutional duty of providing meals to the children.
It said it went to court because the department of education has refused to reinstate the school nutrition programme that feeds nine million pupils.
Arguing on behalf of Equal Education during a virtual hearing on Thursday, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi asked the court to reject the state’s defence that the right to education did not include nutrition.
He said there was chaos in provinces as they did not know when the department would reinstate the school nutrition programme.
Pupils were trapped between parents who were unable to provide food and a government that was denying that it had an obligation to provide food.