New classrooms not up for debate
Minister tells parents not to confuse issues
“We are not going to have conditions that did not exist before Covid-19 for all learners to go back to school,” Angie Motshekga told parents this week who were demanding more classrooms before their children returned to school.
The Basic Education Minister was speaking at a meeting of education stakeholders in Etwatwa, Ekurhuleni, on Monday ahead of cabinet’s announcement to move the country to adjusted alert level 1 Covid-19 regulations.
The adjustments paved the way for all pupils to return to normal schooling from tomorrow and the one-metre social distancing in classroom was scrapped.
“I cannot make an undertaking that classes will be provided so that children can go back to school,” she said. “Let us not combine the returning of children to school with the building of schools.”
Motshekga said that rotational attendance was unsustainable, saying this year’s grade 8 pupils were not ready for high school after attending school sporadically for two years.
“Grade 3 children never had a full school year. It can’t continue. If lessons have to take place under a tree, we have to do that rather than have children not come to school.”
Teacher unions have welcomed the return of children to school, with executive director of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa, Basil Manuel, pointing out that it did not mean they had given up the fight about overcrowding in schools.
“And what has happened in the last two years since Covid-19? Nothing … We have not seen a classroom erected at the overcrowded schools. We cannot simply go back to the bad old days,” said Manuel.
He said Gauteng and Western Cape were better off than other areas in terms of overcrowding.
“The child in Limpopo cannot be treated worse than the child in Gauteng.”
A parent asked about the capacity of the department to fumigate classes in case of Covid-19 infections due to overcrowding.
“We are advised by [the] health [department] that fumigating classes is even more dangerous to the chests of children.
“No school is allowed to fumigate. Ventilation is the most important; we have to keep doors and windows open,” she said, encouraging stakeholders and pupils to vaccinate.