Safety fears as schools reopen

Unions and associations to meet minister today

SHAUN SMILLIE AND KASHIEFA AJAM

AS 1.5 MILLION grades 7 and 12 pupils spend the weekend preparing for their first day back at school, trade unions and governing body associations are trying to delay their return to class.

Today, a collective of trade unions and national school governing body associations plan to meet Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga over concerns that thousands of schools across the country are not safe for teachers and pupils to return.

“This staggered approach we can’t do because the schools that won’t open are the schools that have been, for years and years, neglected,” said Basil Manuel, the executive director of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA.

He pointed to the Northern Cape, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape as the

three provinces that were the least prepared for the reopening on Monday, following the two-month-long lockdown that was initiated to curb the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have it in black and white that in the Eastern Cape they are 30 percent ready,” said Mugwena Maluleke, the general secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers Union.

“How are they going to sort out the other 70 percent in two days? We have already had a serious car accident in Kwazulu-natal, where someone was rushing to deliver PPE (personal protection equipment).”

Manuel said his union had sent out a survey to its members to assess the readiness of schools across the country.

“Our preliminary findings are that schools are not ready,” he said.

The collective would not say what their actions would be if the minister didn’t heed their concerns at the meeting today.

“We are hoping the minister can appreciate the fact that we should hold each other’s hand and understand the situation on the ground,” said Maluleke. “If the minister rejects this approach of working together, she will have declared war on parents and the teachers.”

The unions and governing body associations had met deputy minister of basic education and the department’s director-general, but they did not, said Maluleke, “find each other”.

The collective is concerned that most provincial departments are not able to deliver PPE or haven’t supplied enough.

This after assurances that PPE was being housed in warehouses in provinces. Some schools had as yet not been cleaned and disinfected, according to directives sent out by the Department of Employment and Labour.

Even Gauteng, one of the provinces that is better prepared than most, has schools that are far from ready for the reopening on Monday.

Shaheda Omar, the director of the Teddy Bear Clinic, said: “The bottom line is our schools are not ready.

“For Child Protection Week, we have identified a number of schools where we would like to distribute essential items to the children.

“When we went to visit a school this week to make sure everything was in order, the gates were locked and there was nobody there. This is happening at so many schools.

“They don’t have the resources to clean the premises properly so they’re just not doing it. They are not ready. Covid-19 has shown very clearly the haves and have-nots,” Omar said.

The trade unions and governing body associations voiced other concerns. They said that the amended curriculum had not been provided to schools as yet. Teachers also needed time to be trained to operate in classrooms where Covid-19 was an ever-present danger.

The department, they said, had also not dealt with the co-morbidity issue, and many of their teacher-members were anxious and uncertain over whether they were expected to return to school or not.

The Department of Basic Education did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.

It did, however, release an updated schedule of when more pupils will be returning to school yesterday. Grades R, 1, 2, 3, 6, 10 and 11 will return to class on July 6. The last grades to return will be 4, 5, 8 and 9, which will return to class on August 3.

While there are concerns about the readiness of public schools in all provinces, most independent schools are on track for reopening in June.

“Everyone is very anxious; they don’t know what tomorrow holds, the situation is so fluid, it changes from hour to hour,” said Ebrahim Ansur, chairperson of the National Alliance of Independent School Associations.

Meanwhile, the principal of Parktown Boys’ High School, Malcolm Williams, has returned to work after he was suspended earlier this year following the drowning of pupil Enock Mpianzi.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said that Williams had reported for duty on Monday.