Teacher union has very little confidence in government’s one-month school preparation plan
Natu believes a month will not be enough to prepare schools according to the Covid-19 health regulations.
The National Association Teachers Union (Natu) has expressed very little confidence towards the Department of Basic Education goal’s to prepare school operations under Covid-19 health crisis rules in a month’s time, before opening doors to the first group of pupils.
This after the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, on Thursday announced the department would use the month of May to prepare the schools before grade 12 and 7 pupils return to school on 1 June.
Motshekga, however, said the dates of the re-opening of schools depended on the department’s success in implementing Covid-19 health and safety measures in schools.
Natu President Alan Tomson said a month would not be enough to prepare all South African schools for Covid-19 health and safety standard implementation, for most already had “serious infrastructure issues”.
“All the things that were proposed to protect teachers and pupils, would not really be implemented in all schools in month’s time. The department cannot run the risk of opening the schools for teachers or pupils without ensuring all the safety measures,” Tomson said.
Tomson said teachers will not be advised to go back to school until the department fulfilled its promises.
“Until the department provides water, mobile classes – that will ensure social distancing, mobile toilets, masks to the teachers and millions of learners and hygiene packs to all schools, no learner or teacher must go back to school.”
Tomson believed before the department can discuss re-opening dates it needed to set dates for the health and safety measures to implemented.
“It is still premature to open any institution of learning. The dates that have been proposed in the plan are still too early for all the department’s plans to be implemented.”
He said the task to improve schools’ health and safety standards would take longer as most schools in the country were already in a dire state before Covid-19.
He added that there were thousands of schools still using pit latrines and with no running water, which would be severe health hazards.
He said the union received a number of complaints from teachers reporting principals of schools demanding their presence at school before the department implements its health and safety measures.
Following Motshekga’s presentation the South African Democratic Teacher Union (SADTU), National Professional Teachers of South Africa (NAPTOSA), Suid Afrikaanse Onderwysers Unie (SAOU), Professional Educators Union (PEU) and (Natu) all called for the health of learners and teachers to be prioritised.
The unions were set to have a meeting with Motshekga this week.
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