Back to school: Will Covid-19 pandemic disrupt learning? Parents hope not

The countdown to the start of the 2022 academic year has begun as thousands of pupils around the country prepare to go back to school.

Christa Kleynhans from Pretoria said she was relieved the schools were reopening after a long December holiday.

“Now the children can stop moaning they are bored at home and learn again,” said Kleynhans, whose daughter matriculated last year, has a child going to Grade 6.

“We are looking forward to what new things she will learn this year and play sports.”

Kleynhans said she prayed the children will have an uninterrupted school year.

Ilona Coetzer’s son Zayden was also excited to go back to school where he will do his Grade 5.

“They are supposed to start shifting classes this year but I doubt it with the Covid-19 regulations,” Coetzer said.

She said last year was hard on her son who loves sports.

“They hardly played any sports and just got more and more homework,” she said.

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On Friday, the Gauteng department of education announced a total of 276,564 Grade 1 and 8 online admissions applicants have been successfully placed.

There were, however, 1,465 applicants who remain unplaced due to incomplete or incorrect paperwork.

Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said the department also identified more than 17,000 applicants who did not submit all the necessary supporting documents to the schools where they applied.

Lesufi said the department has prioritised the finalisation of 866 appeals received since the placement period commenced last year.

Michelle Kruger said registering her daughter for high school turned out disappointing because she wasn’t placed at the desired school.

“She wasn’t accepted to the same school as her best friend who also applied on the very same day and she was accepted,” she said.

Kruger said she did phone the school to find out if she could dispute the placement but was told the school was full.

“We left it there and bought school clothes for the school where she was placed,” she said. Chanteney Schwartz will be in matric at Unico Academy in Pretoria this year.

She said she was looking forward to completing matric, to go and study psychiatry next year. “I just want to finish,” she said.

She said she still had to focus although this year was mainly revision work of the previous years.

“It is going to be a hard year ahead.”

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Schwartz’s father, Stuart, said he was not positive about this year because it was not the same as when his eldest son completed matric three years ago.

Suzi Pestana said she was worried about where her son would be placed for Grade 1 because he had a different surname than his elder brother.

“I’m so happy his application at the same school as to where his brother was placed was accepted,” she said.

Pestana said she was positive about the new academic year because it wasn’t the first year of the pandemic.

“Thank goodness they get to go to school every day,” she said.

Pestana said she was excited for her son to learn responsibility as he started his school career.

“I’m looking forward to him making friends and learning new things.”