Private nursery schools could haul ministries to court
GOVERNMENT has been given until this afternoon to respond on whether it will allow private nursery schools and early learning development centres to resume teaching on July 6.
Should it not grant this permission, trade union Solidarity will approach the courts for an urgent order in this regard.
Solidarity’s Professional Guild for Social Workers, together with the Schools Support Centre, is considering taking legal action against the Department of Social Development and the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
In a letter addressed to Minister of Social Development, Lindiwe Zulu, and to Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, they demand that clear regulations be announced to determine the opening of independent and private nursery schools.
“During lockdown, the reopening of schools and private nursery schools has caused constant uncertainty among parents, learners and teachers,” said Melanie Buys, the head of development at the schools support centre.
“The regulations clearly allow for the phasing in of Grade R learners and learners in the lower grades. However, these regulations only apply to schools registered with the Department of Education and, as such, private nursery schools that fall under the Department of Social Development are excluded.”
The Occupational Guild and the schools centre said they believe that private nursery schools should also be allowed to resume teaching on July 6, together with the other nursery schools.
Marisa Engelbrecht, sector head for the union’s Occupational Guild for social workers, said this state of affairs not only denied children their rights, but also the staff working at those schools.
“For thousands of nursery school learners their school is their source of survival,” she said.
Buys said the South African Paediatric Association also strongly recommended that schools resume as soon as possible. The schools support centre also supported the association’s view that the damage to children’s educational development while schools remained closed was far greater than the risk that they might contract or transmit Covid-19 if they safely returned to school.