“Before we protect the life of the curriculum, we must protect the lives of our teachers and learners. The third wave is not at all like the others, it is even attacking children,” said the deputy minister of basic education, Reginah Mhaule.

This was during the launch of the Mpumalanga Department of Education’s vaccination programme at the KaNyamazane Education Development Centre (the former Ngwenya College) on Wednesday.

The MEC for education, Bonakele Majuba, and the MEC for health, Sasekane Manzini, officially launched this programme. Majuba was the first from the education department to receive the vaccine.

This vaccination programme targets 34 172 teachers, 7 667 non-teaching staff, 2 657 SGB-employed teachers and ECD practitioners, and 1 742 teachers from independent schools.

Mhaule said they will not close the schools. “This is because Covid-19 affects one school, but the next is not affected. Why must we then close the school that is not affected? If it happens that two or three children are affected and the teacher too, let us get them and those who were in contact with them to go into quarantine. We then clean the school and the rest go back to school. If it is a case of a province that was hit hard, it will be that province that will close for a while,” she explained.

“If Covid-19 is going to stay with us for the next five years, can we then shut down and say everything must close down? Those who want schools to close, they go to malls, they buy food and go to clinics. Our children are safer when they are at school,” said Mhaule.

Majuba said out of this human disaster experience caused by Covid-19, the department can safely say the road ahead looks promising and bright for everyone. “Soldier on with teaching and learning. This is the beginning of good times for the education sector. We believe and hope that all stakeholders will work together,” he said.

The MEC for health said although the province has started to vaccinate teachers, the focus has not moved from the elderly. “I want to encourage teachers and health workers to work together to ensure that the vaccination programme goes well,” she said.

Manzini said as of Tuesday June 22, Mpumalanga had already registered 88 970 confirmed Covid-19 cases, of which 440 were new cases recorded on that day. The local unions were in attendance: the South African

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Democratic Teachers Union, South African Teachers’ Union, National Teachers’ Union, National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and many others said they are in support of this programme.

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Sdumo Masilela of Nehawu said they wish the department would have started with the vaccination programme earlier.