Cape Town - The Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa (Isasa) says it has managed to negotiate special pricing on data and devices from South Africa’s largest mobile networks to assist pupils during lockdown.
Isasa executive director Lebogang Montjane said Vodacom and MTN agreed to make standard data available at a reduced cost, as well as URL-linked data at a significantly reduced cost, for the duration of lockdown.
Isasa, along with school governing body associations, yesterday briefed an ad hoc committee on their plans.
Khalid Sayed, the ANC's provincial spokesperson on education, welcomed Isasa’s initiatives but said "this should benefit all schools and all pupils in the province”.
The Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools deputy provincial manager Tony Marshall said they have been focusing on developing effective and efficient school governing bodies to deliver quality education in all schools.
Marshall said they also supported the "preservation and promotion of a culture of excellence in teaching, education and service delivery", and have been regularly meeting with Western Cape Education Department (WCED), labour unions and sector stakeholders.
Governing Body Foundation provincial executive Malcolm Venter said they have been engaging with national and provincial education departments on staffing and dealing with reduced salaries and retrenchments.
Lorraine Botha, the DA's provincial spokesperson on education, added: “Isasa and the school governing bodies have shared their commitment to schooling within our province ... supporting and allaying fears of our teacher fraternity in regard to the scare that Covid-19 brought about."
Sayed said Isasa conceded to the ANC's concerns that all children could contract and spread Covid-19, and anyone could die from the virus.
He said that was why the ANC, with its alliance partners in the Western Cape, wanted schools closed until after the peak of the pandemic.
“Isasa has 127 member schools in the Western Cape from a total of 273 independent schools, which includes low fee and no-fee schools.
“We understand they will push for a radical move towards hybrid education, remote teaching and learning, (but) we are concerned that this will widen the inequality gap between the haves and have-nots. This will also be exacerbated by the deviations that the WCED applied for,” Sayed said.
He said organisations representing governing bodies from schools in working class communities critically lacked resources, and complained of a lack of support from the WCED.
“This shows how the WCED favours private schools and former Model C schools over poor schools,” Sayed added.
Cape Argus