Two schools forced to close as teachers test positive
Covid-19 protocols in place as schools reopen, but parents speak of fears
HOURS after welcoming pupils back to class on Monday, two secondary schools in Durban had to close again.
Circulars from Apollo Secondary School in Chatsworth and Clairwood Secondary School stated that one teacher at each school had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Hours after reopening, Apollo Secondary School closed. The principal found out that a staff member who had been at the school last week with other teachers had tested positive.
“Fortunately, the educator was not at school on Monday and was not in contact with any pupils,” said Rowan Hirchan, the chairperson of the school governing body.
He said the teacher was at the school until Thursday and became sick that afternoon while at home.
“On reporting to school last week, the educator was mostly confined to the staff room and admin areas, which are thoroughly sanitised and cleaned on a daily basis.
“The relevant officials in the departments of education and health have been notified, and upon guidance from the district director we have been advised that all academic activity must cease immediately.”
Hirchan said the school’s 23 teachers, including the principal, had been tested yesterday. On Monday, when school reopened, 70% of the matric pupils arrived for class.
“The kids came in all togged out with their masks and face shields. You could see they were nervous to return to school but they were also excited to be back in their classrooms.”
He said while the first day back was productive, after receiving the news about the teacher the management decided it was best to take precautions and close.
“Although the teacher was not in contact with any pupils, we want to ensure the pupils are safe. We sent out circulars to inform parents of the closure and we have advised our teachers to continue with online learning as they have done during the lockdown.”
Clairwood Secondary School closed on Tuesday after a teacher, who was at the school last week but not at the reopening on Monday, tested positive.
According to a circular by Y Naidoo, the principal, the teacher had been in contact with staff members last week until he fell ill.
At the weekend, the teacher went to the doctor and on Monday night he received his results.
“The educator did not report to school yesterday (on Monday) and he was never in contact with pupils.”
Staff were tested at the school on Tuesday. The school will be closed until further notice.
Kwazi Mthethwa, the spokesperson for the Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal, said they were aware of the closures and saw the circulars that had been circulated on social media.
However, he could not confirm any Covid-19-related cases.
“We are guided by the Department of Health. They are the ones who can confirm cases.”
THERE has been mixed reaction to schools reopening this week.
While some schools welcomed back Grade 7 and 12 pupils, others remained closed.
Angie Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education, said on Sunday that schools were ready to welcome back pupils after being closed for more than two months.
She said more than 95% of schools were Covid-19 compliant.
Motshekga said the majority of schools were given the necessary personal protective equipment (PPE).
She said while the department would push to assist the remaining 5%, those that were non-compliant would not open.
“For the remaining 5% or so of learners, alternative measures have been developed by different districts, such as temporarily using neighbouring schools, using underutilised spaces in boarding schools and putting other learners in camps.
“Because some of the alternatives need consultations with parents, the provinces will be engaging parents and following the appropriate protocols to get parental concessions.
“All of this we agreed should be finalised during the course of the week and recovery programmes should be implemented.”
Schools were initially supposed to open last week. However, teacher unions put pressure on the department, saying all schools should only open once they were given the right PPE.
Motshekga said during the past week, school staff were given a chance to ensure schools were ready to receive pupils for the new normal, which included regular and strict monitoring.
She said officials from the department were aware some teachers could have comorbidities and thus a standard operating procedure would be circulated among schools to ensure they were able to manage identified infections among teachers, support staff and pupils. Motshekga said teaching and learning programmes, which were provided online, would continue for those parents who felt uneasy sending their children back to school.
On Monday, the school governing body (SGB) at M Padavatan Primary
School in Crossmoor, Chatsworth, did not open the school.
SGB chairperson Kishore Hambapersad said they were not ready to open as they received limited PPE.
“Our teachers were supposed to get two masks each. They only got one. The grass was not cut. We don’t have signboards on the safety protocols to follow at the school and we did not receive
work permits for the SGB-appointed staff. We were not happy at the state of the school so we notified the parents of all 76 Grade 7 learners that the school would be closed.”
He said the SGB would buy extra masks and hand sanitiser using the school fees and they would request the department compensate them.
When the POST arrived at the school, the service providers the SGB employed had marked spaces outside and in the assembly area to ensure there were 1.5m spaces between each pupil, to promote social distancing.
The staff sat in their cars in the school’s parking area, while the cleaning staff prepared the classrooms. The school was sanitised last week by a certified company.
“We will only open once we, the SGB, are comfortable to allow kids back. We have had no transparency from the department on how many isolation rooms we need, what we need in the isolation rooms, or how to handle pupils if we have to put them in the isolation room. Can we sit with them? Do we leave them alone?
“We also did not receive training from the department. We understand we have an obligation to open the school and we will, but only once we have procured the outstanding PPE, put up signboards around the school and ensured all the necessary precautions are taken. If a pupil contracts the virus, we do not want a civil suit. Everything must be covered from our side.”
He said they formed a Covid-19 steering committee and drew up protocols using examples from schools in other countries on how to ensure social distancing and pupil safety.
Hambapersad said while the school remained closed, workbooks would be printed for pupils to learn from home.
Meanwhile, about 29 out of the 120 Grade 7 pupils arrived at Dawnridge Primary School in Moorton.
Their parents gathered outside the main gate while the principal addressed them. He said all protocols were in place.
He said nurses would screen the pupils and each classroom would accommodate 20 pupils. The principal said they planned for each class to have a lunch break at a different time.
While their questions were answered, a few parents felt uncomfortable leaving their children at the school and requested they take them back home, to which the principal agreed.
One parent said: “We are all scared. I brought my son to school this morning but we sent in one parent as a representative to check the school and he said there was only a small gap between each desk so I feel more comfortable taking my son home.”
Another parent said: “I’d rather let my son lose a year than lose my son for good. I can continue with online learning.”
The principal declined to comment as he is not authorised to speak to the media.
PREVENTION is better than cure. We know this. And then there are the constant reminders that have seen certain practices become part of our daily behaviour and which have become routine.
We wear masks in public, wash our hands with soap and water frequently, we use hand sanitiser where water is not available and we have learnt about the correct cough etiquette. We have also learnt the importance of physical distancing.
All this, where we’ve taken the precautions seriously, has resulted not only in what scientists call “flattening the curve” and slowing down the rapid progression of the novel coronavirus, but also the seasonal flu.
Statistics from a private laboratory show the most common viruses found in test results up to the end of May have not been from the coronavirus but two other viruses: rhinovirus and adenovirus infections.
Does this mean we do not need to use personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent the spread of disease or, for that matter, contracting Covid-19? The simple answer is no.
The South African Paediatric Association as well as other authorities have given us the green light to send our children back to school and allayed many of the fears spread by quacks and conspiracy theorists.
My son, who is in Grade 7, was back in class on Monday. This after I made sure all precautions to prevent him from contracting a viral condition were in place. I took a look at the school and asked questions. This is something every parent should have the right to do.
PPE, including masks, have in recent days raised massive ire because of the KwaZuluNatal’s government’s handling of procurement, safeguarding of the received precious cargo, transport and quality of certain items. And rightfully so.
The KZN Department of Education (DoE) purchased Covid-19-related safety material worth R422 million. The money was spent specifically to ensure that grades 7 and 12, along with their educators and school staff who returned on Monday, did so in a safe and clean environment.
It is not the amount of money that is of concern. It is whether taxpayers’ hard-earned and paid tax rand are ensuring proper service delivery and, in this instance, a safe learning environment for our children.
Certainly, money must not be misspent on what could well be a get-rich-quick profiteering scheme.
How did KZN’s DoE spend the money and was its expenditure wise? As to the latter question, the answer is clear.
Around 10 days ago, I released a picture I took from a presentation made to the KZN education portfolio committee. The image showed the prices paid for Covid-19 safety items purchased specifically for the return of grades 7 and 12.
It showed that R25 was paid for R10 masks, more than R2 500 was spent on R700 thermometers, R1 800 was spent on R400 spray canisters and R183 on a litre of hand sanitiser that can be purchased at wholesale prices ranging from R45 to R65 for the same quantity.
How is it that I could source these lower prices while the department seemingly could not?
Had the DoE paid the wholesale prices, it could have bought two masks at the price it paid (100% more), rather than one. It could have bought three thermometers for the price of one and four spray canisters to sanitise schools after children leave, also for the price it paid for one.
If this does not smell fishy, raise eyebrows and cause us to investigate how and why this came about, then there is something very wrong.
Yet when I raised the point during the portfolio committee, Dr Enock Nzama, the DoE’s head of department (HOD), was quick to point out that they had not done anything wrong and that the department had paid the Treasury’s recommended prices.
He went on to cite Treasury Instruction 5 as their reason for such preposterous spending. Why would the Treasury dictate a price?
We have a considerably free market in South Africa and, given the quantities purchased by the DoE, the right thing to do would be to find the best prices so that taxpayers would get more bang for their bucks. This is common sense.
I contend that the Treasury provided a guideline for not just the quality and standard of products, but also maximum prices to be paid when it released its “instruction”.
Instead, the DoE’s take of the recommended upper price limit not to be exceeded seems clearly misconstrued.
It is also worrying that the HOD would think that any reasonable person would buy his bunkum as a valid explanation. As the administrative head of the department, he has a lot of explaining to do.
It is possible that all other KZN government departments have followed the DoE’s lead in this type of buying. If so, we cannot allow this matter to continue without getting to the bottom of it. If there is any skulduggery, there must be accountability – even if it has to start right from the top.
To this end, the DA has submitted a set of parliamentary questions to the Honourable Kwazi Mshengu, the MEC for Education.
He is the member of the provincial cabinet that accounts to the legislature for the goings-on in the department. He is expected, under the rules of the legislature, to respond to my questions within 14 days from the date of receipt.
Given that the questions are simple, straightforward and that the information should be at their fingertips, the response should be on its way.
Our province, and indeed our country, cannot have a situation where funds from the public purse are spent at the whim of a few individuals who may not have the people’s best interests at heart and who will instead use the opportunity to line the pockets of the connected few. This at the expense of the province’s citizens.
The DA remains committed to rooting out corruption and to ensure that there is maximum freedom within our markets. This will allow for healthy competition that benefits all consumers and sellers, and will make certain that citizen’s taxes are spent to their benefit.
The bottom line is that KZN’s Department of Education could have bought more for our schools had it not paid such extortionate prices.