Owing to the increase of Covid-19 infection cases, education in South Africa is set to restart in June, according to Ministers of Education.
The resumption of the restructured 2020 academic programme will be guided by science, they emphasized.
Dr. Blade Nzimande, the Minister of Higher Education and Training said that the tertiary tier of education will not resume at the beginning of stage 4 of the imposed lockdown on May 01, 2020.
However, he stressed that May will be used to prepare for the resumption of contact learning in various institutions of higher education.
In the meantime, students will receive requisite support from the government and other stakeholders to ensure that facilities are ready for contact learning in June.
The same sentiment was shared by Angie Motshekga, the Minister of Basic Education. In June, schools will reopen by phasing in grade 12 and grade 7 pupils initially. The starting dates, however, are not cast in stone.
Although tertiary institutions are to resume contact-based learning in June, medicine and related fields are set to return to universities for the practical components of learning in May.
Depending on how the impact of the coronavirus manifest, the 2020 academic year may be extend to January 2021, Dr. Nzimande added.
Concerning the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), he hinted that the return to colleges for different levels will be staggered. Moreover, TVET examinations which were scheduled for June have been deferred indefinitely. Their winter and September school holidays will also be restructured.
As far as the grade 12 rewrite examinations for the class of 2019 planned for the 4th of May, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) said they will be merged with the end of the year arrangements.
Currently, all students in SA are at home. Some are receiving instructional learning thereof through various means of broadcast and online platforms.
The DBE April 30, 2020 statement read:
“The Department has used one-hundred and twenty-three (123) radio stations, and six (6) different television channels with a total reach of more than thirty-five (35) million people. The initiative was put in place as an intervention to bring curriculum lessons to households across the country to assist learners as schools remain closed. This in a bid to minimise the impact of the Corona Virus on basic education. In addition to the thirteen (13) radio stations of the SABC, which broadcast in all official languages, one-hundred and ten (110) community radio stations are also involved in carrying curriculum content on a daily basis.”
DBE also reiterated the continual use of radio, television and online services to bring basic education to different pupils across South Africa.
Both Ministers of Education underscored the availability or lack of internet-oriented resources to cover the length and breath of SA. Quiet important, they echoed that learning material must be zero-rated by telecommunication networks in the country.
Nevertheless, Motshekga stressed that her department’s “strength is in the classrooms, anything else will not assist us”.
On May 04, DBE will send the first batch of its officials to prepare school facilities for the reopening in June.
The Minister said students and staff will be supplied with protective gear. All schools will be bound to adhere with health and safety standards as determined by the Department of Health such as masks, sanitization and no sharing of desks by learners. The school facilities with be fumigated daily, Angie Motshekga said.
Again, the Minister’s statement reiterated upon the reopening of schools that: “screening of learners and educators will be done… Temperature checks will be administered; and [l]earners or staff members who present with raised temperatures, will then be considered for isolation and testing.”