BETTER SAFE
SEVERAL schools across the country have started sanitising and disinfecting classrooms. Thembokuhle Shezi has been working at Ekuthuleni Primary School, before the scheduled June 1 reopenings, which follows the relaxing of the Covid-19 lockdown regulations to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
TWO retired Durban school principals have warned that the return to school on June 1 was just “a dream” sold to the parents and teachers by the Department of Basic Education.
A retired principal from Ntshanga said there had never been a time in his teaching career that things were done on time.
“Schools in my area have only received sanitisers. Most schools here have not even started cutting the grass and nothing has been said about cleaning the schools. I know this because I still get regular updates. I believe that it is too soon to reopen schools. Schools will not meet the required regulations to reopen,” said the former principal.
He said the promise that pupils would not share a textbook was never going to work because, in the 36 years of his career, there had never been any period without a shortage of textbooks.
Another retired principal agreed, saying he hoped that the department was ready for the “chaos” ahead of the reopening of schools.
“As a former principal, I know the amount of work behind the reopening of a school after just a few weeks of school holidays. Principals return to find huge damage to school property and, before classes can begin, there is a lot that principals need to fix,” he said.
He said this time schools had been closed for more than two months and the damage would surely be double or triple.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Nomarashiya Caluza said their monitoring this week had found that water tanks were still not delivered to many deserving schools.
The National Professional Teachers Organisation (Naptosa) spokesperson, Thirona Moodley, said there had been little improvement in getting schools ready.
“Some schools have not been cleaned, grass not cut. Teachers are advised not to go anywhere near schools,” Moodley said.
The National Teachers’ Union (Natu) president Alan Thompson said the government should be realistic with their statements.
“It will be more realistic, for instance, for the government to state that schools will be disinfected three times per week by a service provider, than to tell the public that every school will be disinfected twice per day – in the morning and the afternoon.
“At present, our sense is that the government has not fully embraced the quagmire that many historically disadvantaged schools find themselves in with regard to meeting the stipulated health requirements,” Thompson said.