Covid-19: Schools to close for four weeks, academic year to carry over to 2021

After weeks of speculation and much consultation between government and educational role-players and stakeholders, President Cyril Ramaphosa this evening announced that all public schools will close for four weeks, from 27 July to 24 August.

“This has also been the experience in other countries where schools have opened and have had to close again due to the circumstances that each country has had to confront,” he said.

An exception has been made for grade 7 and 12 learners and teachers who will take a two and one week break respectively. This means that grade 7s will now be expected to return to school on 10 August while the class of 2020 will head back on 3 August.

Teacher unions met with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) earlier this week where concerns regarding the ability of schools to fully function throughout the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic were raised.

The unions, along with the public and various other organisations, have been pleading with government to shut schools to help prevent learners and teachers from contracting the virus.

Specific arrangements will be made for different categories of schools, and these, along with other details on how schools will operate, will be made public by Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga in due course.

The president also announced that the national school nutrition programme would continue to operate, thus ensuring learners still received meals while not attending school.

“We have taken a deliberately cautious approach to keep schools closed during a period when the country is expected to experience its greatest increase in infections,” the president said.

He also acknowledged that this decision would upset many learners who wanted to return to class, as well as parents who would now had to make alternative arrangements, but asked for their cooperation ‘for the greater good’.

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