Cape Town – Some Cape Town primary school principals are fearful of pupils returning to school five days a week and say the health and lives of teachers will be being put at risk.
On Friday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga confirmed that the new guidelines have been outlined in the government gazette for the full-time return of Grade R to Grade 7 pupils to school from July 26.
The regulations do leave allowances for changes to be made, especially if President Cyril Ramaphosa adjusts the lockdown levels.
Regulations state that: “A risk-adjusted differentiated strategy means an approach to school attendance that is determined by the direction the pandemic is taking in the district municipality and country.”
Fearful of identifying themselves because they need permission from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) before speaking to media, some primary school principals anonymously voiced fears about pupils returning to the classroom five days a week.
A principal at a Belhar primary school said: “I will only be completely confident and comfortable if there is an assurance that the health risks and the safety of all can be promised. Otherwise I’m not comfortable at all.”
He said teaching staff were unhappy about the announcement.
“We have learners from all over society and you can even see if you drive through areas where our own learners come from, it seems like lockdown was never instituted in communities. The way people operate and move, no social distancing and wearing of masks and then the same learners from those areas come back to school and we are vulnerable.”
A Mitchells Plain primary principal said space in the classroom was of real concern.
“Our classrooms are built to accommodate 34 learners and that’s under normal circumstances with learners sitting close to each other. We have 40 learners in our classroom … before Covid-19, the children were sitting on top of each other,” he said.
He added: “There’s 20 learners in a classroom now and we just about make it – if there are 40 soon, we won’t be able to stick to the protocols of social distancing.”
A Hanover Park principal said he also had his reservations.
“It’s going to be difficult but it’s necessary. A lot of children are roaming the streets, aimlessly and, to me, they belong at school. There is also the possibility of children coming back in shifts on one day – a morning group and an afternoon group, but keep the numbers low,” the principal said.
Western Cape Education MEC Debbie Schafer said they supported the national department’s decision to allow the return of pupils to school five days a week.
She added that principals would be able to alert them if they cannot do this.
“Section 5A (9-12) (of the regulations) deals specifically with situations where, despite its best efforts, a school is unable to implement full attendance. The head of department may give permission for a school to continue with rotating timetables according to the directions,” she said.
Schafer said some schools have already reintroduced full time teaching.
“Expert evidence shows that we can move to full attendance with younger children, as they are less susceptible to the virus and less likely to transmit it. So it makes absolute sense to bring back primary school learners full-time, provided that they can comply with the current directions.
“It should be noted that a number of our schools have already returned to 100% school attendance and are proceeding with normal timetables where they are able to meet the requirements.”
Chief executive of Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas), Paul Colditz said they wanted this to happen at the beginning of the year.
“The fact is that if children are subject to infection they are much more likely to get infected outside of school than at school,” he said.
Colditz added that teachers have a lesser risk of exposure to the virus than other South Africans.
He said: “There are hundreds of thousands of people who go to work on a daily basis and have not yet been vaccinated. Cashiers at the tills at the supermarket, they are more exposed than teachers would be. It’s much easier for teachers to keep to a safe social distance than thousands of other workers in the country.”
Meanwhile, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the National Professional Teachers Union of SA (Naptosa) said the latest directive issued by Motshekga should be welcomed but this was subject to the third wave..
They said the threat of the third wave posed a serious risk, but primary school pupils would have to go back to school because they are not at high risk of Covid-19.
This was based on science and research done on pupils.
Sadtu general-secretary Mugwena Maluleke said government would have to monitor the situation and it was critical that safety measures were taken.
“We are going to have to continue to engage with scientists as we monitor,” said Maluleke.
Executive director of Naptosa Basil Manuel said they were consulted.
“We raised a number of concerns and some of the concerns were considered. For instance, the minister wanted this to start on 31 May but we said it’s impossible for schools to organise at this time,” said Manuel.
He said the minister then changed the date to July 26. But there were questions on whether there would be enough personal protective equipment when thousands of primary school pupils return.
“As teacher unions we must be led by scientists. The scientists have said primary school learners are hardly affected or infected by corona,” he said.
The DA also weighed in, saying although threat of the third wave was imminent, primary school pupils have to return to school.
DA Member of Parliament Bax Nodada said the minister must take the advice of the advisory council and a decision must be based on science.
“As the DA, we have always said the minister must take the advice of the ministerial advisory committee, which is based on science. We are on a third wave, there must be science behind it. From where we are, learners that are in primary school will not pose a risk,” said Nodada.
Weekend Argus
Credit IOL