Shut the doors of learning during Covid-19 peak – Sadtu

The South African Democratic Teachers ’Union (Sadtu) has called for the closure of schools during the Covid-19 peak period.

At a media briefing on Tuesday, Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said the organisation was proposing to national government to close schools during the peak of the pandemic, in a bid to avoid overburdening of the health system and save lives.

Maluleke said the continuation of school operations would contribute “greatly” to the Covid-19 transmissions and overwhelm the health system.

“The lives of teachers, learners, education support personnel and the public do matter. We need to save lives, the union cannot continue sending condolence messages to families of members.

“Curbing of the spread of the virus means limiting the movement and the schools as we know, have a large number of people – with the continuation of school operation, especially during the peak period, this might lead to a high number of reported cases.”

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Although there has not been any scientific information suggesting most of over 775 schools affected by Covid-19 cases, Maluleke said the organisation could not dispute “high” possibility of this to have taken place at schools.

“We have received reports from teachers that principals from some schools do not disclose those who have tested positive for close contacts to quarantine.

“There is secrecy at schools. They do not disclose and sometimes let suspected cases to be at schools and not quarantined. This puts lives at risk.”

Should the department not welcome the proposal of suspension of classes, Maluleke said Sadtu would not immediately approach the courts but would “engage with members further”.

“We cannot continue to be sending condolences. We have to decelerate the spread by limiting movement and suspending classes.”

Sadtu also claimed that effective learning was not taking place at schools.

“There are few learners attending at school, in the West Rand, 40 schools had 40% school attendance. In Northern Cape, in one school, only four learners attended school.

“Secondly, there are no substitute teachers for those with comorbidities as it is right now. We propose that let us first deal with the health issue to make sure more lives are not lost.”

However, Sadtu proposed that learning must not stop while schools would be closed.

“We are proposing that there should be radio-based learning to reach those in rural areas who cannot access online teaching for learning could proceed while classes are suspended.”

Maluleke said Sadtu could not resort to the scrapping the academic year, as this would put “poor learners at a disadvantage while independent schools continue with learning, we cannot scrap the academic year without trying other measures”.

He said Sadtu would meet with the department of basic education this week.

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