CAPE TOWN - Schools have been scrubbed and prepared over the week ahead of the return of Grade 7 and Grade 12 pupils. Some have had to bend the rules and innovate.
Many Cape Town schools have used their Facebook pages and WhatsApp groups to communicate with parents.
Parkhurst Primary School in Westridge, Mitchells Plain, is one such school. It has informed parents that things will be different, starting when they drop off their children. The Grade 7 classes have been split between the school’s two entrances.
At Norman Henshilwood High School in Constantia, pupils have been given some flexibility with their uniform. The 214 Grade 12s at this school will wear their school uniforms only on a Monday and the rest of the week they will be allowed to wear their normal clothes.
Principal Jawaad Holland said: “I’m a stickler for the uniform, but you must bend the rules a bit now.
“It’s winter now so you cannot expect parents to wash and iron school clothes every day to ensure the child adheres to the health and safety rules.”
At Timour Hall Primary in Plumstead, principal Warren Boonzaier said parents had been very generous. One parent donated two masks to each pupil and another sanitised the school at their own cost.
Boonzaier said pupils would bring only their lunch bags every day. “We asked that on the first day, learners bring all their books to school in a plastic crate and it will be kept in their classroom,” he said.
“We will also use music stands so that pupils can all look at a book, but not touch it.”
According to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation: “Nationwide closures are impacting almost 70% of the world’s student population. Several other countries have implemented localised closures impacting millions of additional
learners.”