Online schools’ popularity boosted by disruptions caused by Covid-19
As the pandemic continues to disrupt schooling in South Africa, some learners are opting not to walk through school doors, sit next to their peers or meet their teachers face to face this year. By
Several online schools have noted a significant increase in enrolments during the Covid-19 pandemic, as students appear to be abandoning traditional schools in favour of online classes owing to concerns around rotational learning and Covid-19 disruptions.
The spike in enrolments at various online schools follows the Department of Basic Education’s publication of a draft guiding framework for virtual schooling in South Africa, “intended to provide direction to those who want to establish virtual schools in the basic education sector on how to establish and register quality and effective schools”.
The development of a framework for emerging online schools is a priority, as virtual schools have been operating unregistered for several years without adequate policy guidance, according to the document.
There has been a significant uptake in learner enrolment during the pandemic at Teneo, which was established pre-Covid-19, the head of marketing and communications at the online school, Sarah Ferguson, told DM168. Starting with 85 students in 2018, learner enrolment at Teneo grew to 5,400 in 2020 and 8,620 in 2021, she said.
The online school has roughly 9,000 students enrolled for 2022, and is preparing for 13,000, said Ferguson.
“We are currently enrolling, on average, 60 to 100 learners per day and expect this trend to continue for the rest of January and February,” Ferguson told DM168.
According to Ferguson, it appears “that parents are tiring of rotational learning”, after Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga announced on 11 January that the rotational timetable would remain in place for many schools at the start of the 2022 academic year.
Swales Online Academy, which offers schooling for grades 4 to 11, has had an increase in learner enrolment of 600% this year, according to Lauren Jacquin, business head at Swales Online Academy.
“As a result of schools being forced to incorporate online teaching during remote periods, parents have realised that [online schooling] is a possibility where they would never have been exposed to it before,” said Jacquin. She added that “parents are scared of sending their children to school as a result of Covid-19”, which has contributed to the increased interest in online schooling.
Jacquin’s remarks about an increased interest in online schooling were echoed by the MD of Optimi Home, Louise Schoonwinkel, who has noted a spike in interest in Impaq’s Homeschool system since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Schoonwinkel said Impaq’s Homeschool had 18,000 learners in 2019, which grew to 30,000 in 2021. The company has also launched an online school for grades 7 to 11, starting at the beginning of this year.
Schoonwinkel said reasons for parents enrolling their children in Impaq’s Homeschool included “safety at home, especially in families with comorbidities”.
“We are also finding that a lot of families who are making the switch found homeschooling and online schooling to be very effective during periods of school closures when schools went online or sent work home during hard lockdown,” added Schoonwinkel.
The University of Cape Town’s Online High School, which opened on 10 January, received more than 9,500 applications, the director and principal, Yandiswa Xhakaza, told DM168.
The online school has almost 5,000 enrolled students for the 2022 academic year across grades 8 to 11, according to Xhakaza. Grade 12 will only start from 2023.
“The advent of Covid-19 led to many children being left behind from a curriculum-coverage perspective,” said Xhakaza. “As a new online high school, we have been at the receiving end of enrolling hundreds of learners with gaps in their conceptual understanding of key subjects. To this end, we have put an intense remediation programme in place to help bridge these glaring gaps to help them catch up.”
Lee-Anne Minnaar enrolled her 13-yearold daughter, Amber, in Grade 8 at UCT’s Online High School this year. She was previously at a government primary school. Minnaar said that, as a result of rotational timetabling, Amber attended school every second day in 2021, which interrupted her studies.
“It was very disruptive in terms of finding a rhythm; she really struggled academically,” said Minnaar, who had already noticed her daughter struggling in 2020.
Despite the notable increase of learners at online schools, the number of enrolments in the national school system continues to increase year-on-year. In 2019, the number of learners in the basic education sector was 13,041,198, which increased to 13,409,249 in 2021, Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told DM168.
According to Mhlanga, the process for collecting 2022 learner numbers has not yet started.
We are currently enrolling, on average, 60 to 100 learners per day and expect this trend to continue for the rest of January and February Sarah Ferguson, head of marketing and communications at Teneo