The restart of the restructured school calender in South Africa (SA) has been deferred by a week, from the 1st of June to the 8th (of June), a statement from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) showed.

On Sunday May 31, 6P.M., DBE Minister Angie Motshekga was scheduled to address the nation about the status of reopening schools. That media briefing was called off at the eleventh hour.

What followed next was a flurry of confusion that muddied and swept the entire country into a frenzy about or whether the reopening of schools was still on course or put on ice. Parents and guardians were left in limbo, not least the learners.

The global coronavirus outbreak and its impact on societies is beyond imagination. One of the adversely affected areas in South Africa, as it is in many countries of the world, is the schooling system.

Schools were forced to shut down their premises in March when Covid-19 epidemic hit SA. Two months later, the government is bringing learners back to schools. Although not equally sufficient to all regions or provinces, online media, radio and television stations kept some learners preoccupied with educational contents in the intervening tenuous period.

At the moment, the focus in SA is primarily on bringing back grade 7s and 12s to claw back some lost school time and cover syllabuses. Other grades will be phased-in gradually guided by science behind the coronavirus numbers of those afflicted.

Monday June 1 marks the 67th day of the nationwide lockdown and the country is easing restrictions from “Level 4” to “Level 3”.

In the build up to the Covid-19-adapted calendar for SA schools, there had been an array of arguments against the restart of schooling ranging from sector unions to various stakeholders with divergent views on the return of educators and pupils to formal teaching and learning.

Exacerbating this messy affair is that there had been a high level of uncertainty about the tentative preparedness of some of the schools amid the soaring Covid-19 infections in this country. Further, arson, theft and general vandalism of schools in some communities compounded the plight of an already volatile situation.

Even though there was a sympathetic class of people that felt schools must resume, there were rational minds on the other side of the spectrum warning about rushing teachers and pupils into classrooms bereft of the necessary recommended measures in place.

Nevertheless, Motshekga had assured the nation last week that it was all systems go and hands on deck for the resumption of schools on June 1, 2020. Labour Unions and interested parties were having none of it. They insisted that the Minister was hurrying in a precarious situation, thus endangering the lives of many.

In the end, DBE issued a statement on Sunday night indicating, among other reasons, lack of thorough preparations for complying with Covid-19 stipulations in other parts of the country have caused the postponement of going back to classes. 

In a way, the nondelivery of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), the vandalised and/or shortage of school facilities, water and sanitation swayed and forced the hand of authorities to pause the start on Monday.

The statement from DBE came after the Minister postponed the media briefing.

Be that as it may, only the Western Cape (WC) province showed its readiness to fudge ahead regardless.

Nationally, DBE stated that all provinces “reflected 80% readiness”. Surely, that is not good enough. It seems the reopening of schools at the same time won the day. Accordingly, its point of departure was:

“The date on which all learners have to report back to school, is the 8th June 2020.”

Unavoidably, there are going to be provinces besides the WC that will see pupils making their way to different schools across the country.

Evidently, the national department has been brought down hard to earth with a thud due to unbearable pressure from all quarters against the reopening of schools. Yet, how much was the decision based on the lack of readiness and how much influence did labour unions and lobbyists have on the department’s decision to freeze June 1?

Was the rising number of positive cases for Covid-19 being reported after the reopening of the mines an inflection point?

Perhaps the smoke will clear when the Minister takes to the podium and courageously face, hopefully, the nation on Monday as advised.