Pupils with underlying health problems allowed to do home schooling

File picture: Matthew Jordaan/African News Agency (ANA)

File picture: Matthew Jordaan/African News Agency (ANA)

Published May 21, 2020

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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.

Cape Times

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