Minister Angie Motshekga gives clarity on the re-opening of schools

Thousands of pupils attending public schools will start their new school year this week, after a delay due to the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa.

Although most parents and pupils are relieved, some still have their reservations whether schools can provide the necessary protective measures.

“It has been three weeks, since we started phasing-in the re-opening of schools for the year 2021. School management teams returned on 25 January, and teachers have been back at work for two weeks now, since 1 February,” basic education minister Angie Motshekga said on Sunday, in her opening remarks at a briefing to lay out the plans for the 2021 school year.

The re-opening of schools was delayed due to the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic cases in South Africa.

However, the infection rate decreased sharply over the last two weeks, after the new strain of the virus in South Africa caused havoc compared to the previous wave when more than 15 000 people died.

The mortality rate has since increased dramatically leaving close to 50 000 people dead due to the virus.

Sceptics who are convinced that the re-opening of the schools in September 2020 contributed to the second wave, remained critical over the start of the new school year, saying this would bring in the third wave of Covid-19 in the country.

Motshekga said the health and safety of teachers, staff and learners was at the top of the priority list.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the DBE has been monitoring the state of provinces on a regular basis to ensure that provinces have systems in place to cope under the pandemic, to provide support and to ensure smooth opening and running of schools,” she said.

Motshekga said nearly 290 000 young people have been employed on contract as education assistants and general school assistants to help keep safety measures in place.

However, the impact of the coronavirus continued to be felt in the basic education sector.

“Latest available figures indicate that 1 169 educators have passed away as a direct result of Covid-19. This year alone, up to Friday, 12 February, the number of deceased educators stood at 159; while for non-teaching staff we have recorded 63 deaths. This is really heart-breaking, and we convey our sincere condolences to the affected families,” Motshekga said.

The demand for space in schools, especially in grades 1 and 8, remained a challenge for the education sector.

“The department has gazetted a draft revised school admissions policy for public comment. The draft policy focuses among others on documents required for the admission of a learner, admission of learners who are not South African citizens, undocumented learners, learners with special education needs, and school zoning.

“The policy also focuses on the right and obligations of parents. These are critical issues hence we are imploring the public to submit their comments to the department by 12 March 2021,” Motshekga said.

On the leaking of question papers in last year’s matric exams, Motshekga said despite the successful administration of the 2020 combined NSC examination involving more than 1 000 000 candidates, the examination was marred by the leaks of the math paper 2 and physical sciences paper 2 question papers.

The department decided that these two papers had to be rewritten, but after a successful court application from matriculants, the department had to set aside their plans.

In the meantime, an investigation revealed that the leaks occurred from one of the province’s contracted printers.

“The team’s investigation looked at marking and statistical marking. It says investigations have shown that the exams were not compromised,” the department said.

A report into the probe showed there was no indication of widespread leaks in the leaked question papers.