There is unshakable fear in the schooling system around the country. The tension between government and stakeholders is reaching fever pitch. Labour unions have joined the demands of parents to have schooling temporarily halted until the novel coronavirus peak pass. Government has a mammoth task at hand.
South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is calling for the suspension of contact learning in South African schools.
The resounding pleas are motivated by the escalating number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the country.
Most of the government schools are in remote areas and lack constant supply of basic needs such as water and ablution facilities, lashed out Mogwena Maluleke on BBC Africa on Tuesday.
Schools were reopened in June from a long Covid-19 imposed break that begun towards the end of March.
SADTU is supported by Naptosa (National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa) and National Teachers Union (NATU) among others in their their calls for school closures.
Speaking to 702 Talk Radio, Prof. Jonathan Jansen said:
The unions are defending their members. The situation is different on the ground now. Teachers see their colleagues getting infected and die and now they are gripped by fear for their lives.
The Department of Basic Education(DBA) Minister Angie Motshekga canceled a meeting with trade unions on Wednesday, July 15.
In its appeal against the continuation schooling in the midst of the pandemic
NATU, expressed disappointment upon this cancelation.
Prof. Jansen added:
The problem of the Minister is politics. You can’t dictate the virus through policies. The fact that there are few teachers and attendance at schools shows that the academic year is over.
According the department [DBE] spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga, the Minister is still consulting with stakeholders and will apprise the nation the coming Friday.
Matakanye Matakanye, the Secretary General of National Association of SGBS (School Governing Bodies), said on Newzroom Afrika that it is consulting its provincial bodies and by Friday there will be clarification. The scientists are not even sure, he continued, whether Covid-19 is airborne or not.
Although World Health Organisation (WHO)has acknowledged that coronavirus can linger in the air for sometime, it has conducting its own investigations.
As much as schooling carries on countrywide, apprehension around Covid-19 and its devastating effects on the rise.
On the one hand, there is a public sympathy to stitch together what remains of 2020 academic year; on the other hand, there is a general outcry that students are being layed on harm’s way unnecessarily.
In contrast, with teachers and other schools staff members getting infected daily, there is growing fear in their mileu. They are at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19 while leaners, according to research, are not. Given the novelity of the virus, this is currently a moot dichotomy.