Public school parents in KaBokweni up in arms

Parents who spoke openly to this paper expressed their disappointment over government’s decision to reopen schools.
However, the Department of Education in the province has defended government’s move to reopen schools, arguing that it is ready to save the school year, which was abruptly called off due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We are pulling all stops and working hard as you can see to make sure that we are ready by Friday. We are currently busy fumigating schools and we are also making sure that schools are cleaned and fumigated throughout the province,” said education MEC, Bonakele Majuba, during his visit to schools in the area on Tuesday.

He was accompanied by the deputy minister of basic education, Dr Regina Mhaule, who also shared Majuba’s sentiments that they were working around the clock to get all schools ready before Monday.

The minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, announced that schools will reopen on Monday, June 1.
Even though Motshekga stressed that only grades seven and 12 will be allowed back to school, parents in some quarters were not impressed by this decision.

“My only concern here is that we don’t see parliament being reopened and our leaders going back to work as usual. If they (government) honestly believe that it is safe for our children and teachers to go back to school, why can’t they do the same for all government employees and politicians in parliament,” asked a concerned parent, Monica Ndlovu.

“Actually as the minister alluded to the fact that what we want to do is to balance the two things of saving the academic year and at the same time prioritising the saving of lives, we believe that we must pull all stops and make sure that there are protection and safety of both teachers and leaners. What we can confirm now is that personal protective equipment (PPE) is already there and will be distributed to all our schools when we are about to reopen,” assured Majuba.

There have also been calls from communities to have old and dilapidated schools demolished and rebuilt afresh, instead of just fumigating them.

“Dilapidation of schools is unfortunately a legacy that we had even before the advent of coronavirus. But, what we are going to concentrate on for now is to ensure that all the schools are cleaned and fumigated so we can defeat the spread of the virus. This is our current threat, the virus and so we must fight that for now,” said Majuba.

People are outraged, here is what they have to say: