DURBAN – As the first day of schools reopening draws near, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said she is aware that not all schools will resume in school teaching from June 1. She said she is expecting a week delay with regards to on-site teaching.
Grade 12 and 7 pupils are expected to return to school on Monday. Many parents, however, are against the idea of sending their children back to school in fear that their children will be infected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Teachers unions have urged their members to remain at home as many schools have not received personal protective equipment and the schools have not yet been sanitized.
In some schools, the disinfection process did not go according to plan, the local department of education had provided a number of schools with sanitizers only, instead of the promised budget to pay for the disinfection process. These schools have had to pay for the disinfection from their own budget.
According to Motshekga, some of the schools in Limpopo, Northern Cape and North West will not reopen on Monday as they still wait for personal protective equipment, which is currently “in transit”.
"Northern Cape said to me, because of distance, our service providers will not be able to have delivered by Monday, can we open on the 8th, which is a week. It is fine, what they have to do is clock back lost time, have longer classes, whatever they can do to clock back. KZN said they can only start on Thursday because they have to do inductions and orientation, here they have everything but are saying they won't be able to teach on Monday because they have to settle kids.
"Other schools are saying they will start on the 8th. And I am not expecting delays of three months. I am expecting delays of a week at most and I don't think it's detrimental because safety has to be the priority. So, if safety is not in place, I don't think we are prepared to risk anything,” said Motshekga.
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