Cape Town – As more pupils are expected to return to schools next week, a survey conducted by the five major teacher unions has found that schools do not have full teacher complements.
The survey was conducted across all provinces and assessed the readiness for the return of grades R to 3, 6, 10 and 11, on Monday.
National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa) executive director Basil Manuel said: “Schools anticipate not coping with procedures when the next grades return.
"Schools already do not have a full complement of teachers. About 23% have not been able to construct a timetable because of classroom and teacher shortages.”
Manuel added that schools struggling to comply with sanitation and hand sanitising would be worse off.
Western Cape education MEC Debbie Schäfer’s spokesperson, Kerry Mauchline, said: “The number of staff members (teaching and non-teaching) who have tested positive in the past two weeks - thus the maximum number who are currently still in their 14-day isolation period - is just over 300 (less than 1% of school staff). Not all of these individuals are experiencing symptoms.”
She added that if a teacher became ill with Covid-19, the school could apply for a substitute teacher.
As of last Friday, 557 teachers and 134 pupils had tested positive for Covid-19.
Parents this week took to the streets to protest against the reopening of schools before Covid-19 cases have peaked in the province.
SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) provincial secretary Jonavon Rustin said they had staged pickets throughout the province on Tuesday.
“We had pickets as far as Murraysville in the Karoo area, and in Knysna and George. We are deeply concerned about the infection numbers in schools and that the personal protective equipment is insufficient.
“We are also deeply worried about the fact that the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) is not following the proper protocols. Teachers are being infected at schools, and only the areas where the teachers supposedly had been are disinfected after two days,” said Rustin.
A teacher at Kuilsriver Primary School, Surita Muller, said 15 teachers joined in pickets at the school to show their support to parents and staff.
“We are receiving many calls from anxious parents. We are also nervous and scared. This is why we showed our support and stood in solidarity with parents and pupils,” said Muller.
Meanwhile the Educators' Union of South Africa (Eusa) called for a two-day “stay-away” for yesterday and today across the province, to show its “dissatisfaction with the environment teachers are working in as well as the current infection rate”.
Eusa provincial leader André de Bruyn said the stay-away aimed to highlight the infection rate and lives lost over the past three weeks since schools reopened.
Mauchline said most organisations that had undertaken picketing had not engaged the department.
“Where groups have requested engagement with the department, this has been arranged. For example, Minister Schäfer met with the Khayelitsha Covid-19 Response Team regarding their concerns about schools, and a productive engagement took place,” said Mauchline.