Cape Town – Parents whose children have comorbidities will be able to do home-schooling over the next few months, or until lockdown restrictions are lifted.
Staffers with one or more pre-existing conditions will also be allowed to stay home provided a medical report on the nature and duration of their illness is supplied.
These were among the plans the provincial Education Department announced yesterday following Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s announcement that pupils in grades 7 and 12 would be the first to return to school on June 1.
This has been met with mixed reaction from teacher unions and parents. An Ipsos online survey showed that only 6% of South Africans would be very comfortable allowing their children to return to school. Thirty-one percent said they were not comfortable at all.
However, Western Cape Education Department MEC Debbie Schäfer hailed Motshekga’s announcement, saying her department had placed orders for school safety and hygiene packs, which were expected to arrive at schools in the coming weeks.
This includes two masks for every pupil and staff member in all public schools, hand sanitiser and liquid soap, cleaning materials and non-contact digital thermometers.
Principals will also oversee the thorough cleaning of schools in preparation for school staff and pupils' return.
“An interim list of conditions that present a risk for staff and learners as ‘comorbidities’, such as hypertension, diabetes and TB, has been sent to schools.
"This list specifies in detail which conditions are regarded by health experts as high risk, and how they are measured. Principals and SMTs will be compiling confidential lists of learners and staff with these conditions.
“Parents whose children have comorbidities will be offered the opportunity to oversee their children’s learning at home, with the support of the department over the next few months, or until restrictions are lifted.
"A letter will be sent to schools with a form for parents to sign indicating their intention to keep their child at home and to oversee their learning.
“Staff with these conditions will need to provide a medical report
on the nature and duration of
the illness. Appropriate work
arrangements and/or potential leave
may then be considered,” Schäfer
said.
Motshekga said announcements
on the opening up of other grades
would still be made.
In a joint statement yesterday, the SA Democratic Teachers Union
(Sadtu), the National Professional
Teachers’ Organisation of South
Africa, the National Teacher’s Union,
the Professional Educators Union and the SA Onderwysers Unie said
sometimes information by officials
to provincial departments, and
from provincial departments to the
minister, did not reflect the situation
on the ground.
In anticipation of Motshekga’s
address, the unions conducted a
survey among their members.
“This survey was completed by
principals who are on the ground,
and are the very army the country
depends on to manage schools in
conditions of safety.
"When, for
example, 79% of the respondents
report that they have not received
regulations on how to deal with
health and safety issues, when 60%
report that their circuit manager has
not yet been in touch with them,
and when 92% of respondents
report that offices have not yet been
cleaned and sanitised, you know
there is a problem.
“But the minister cleverly
deflected these real facts by stating
that school readiness will progress as
we count down to the reopening of
schools,” the unions said.
Meanwhile, Parents Against
the Opening of Schools, a group
established following Motshekga’s
announcement, is gearing up to
interdict the national department
from opening schools until after the
Covid-19 pandemic has peaked.
Group co-ordinator Vanessa le
Roux said lawyers were preparing
papers.
“There is a lot of fear among
parents. They fear for their children’s
safety. We aren’t saying that we’re
not going to live with the virus, or
that we want to wait for a vaccine.
We’re saying we want to wait for the
cases to peak,” Le Roux said.
“My child may be fit as a fiddle,
but I’m a diabetic. What if he brings
it home,” she asked.