Back to school sooner, or later?

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga will be announcing her back to school plans on Friday in the face of the recommendation by the national coronavirus command council (NCCC) they should open on 15 February instead of 27 January – and despite many South Africans thinking going back to a brick and mortar school is a bad idea.

However, the National Alliance of Independent Schools in South Africa (Naisa) said yesterday it hoped schools could open as soon as possible for the more effective face-to-face teaching and learning environment.

Naisa, among other stakeholders in the education sector, was informed by the director-general of the Department of Education, Mathanzima Mweli, during a Wednesday night meeting NCCC had proposed the opening of schools be put off until 15 February, in the wake of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

On Monday, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) said it would go ahead with its plan to begin its academic year on 27 January.

Dr Sara Black is an education researcher, teacher, policy analyst, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg.

“Less than 5% of the children who are starting Grade 1 this year will get to university, this is not where our focus should be right now,” Black said, noting it was pre-school and grade one children who needed the most attention now.

“The unfortunate situation is that schools are struggling to effect meaningful teaching and learning under these conditions and have been struggling since lockdown last March.”

Black noted the “nominal idea” SA ever actually went back to school needed to be to be carefully scrutinised.

“After all, most grades did not go back full time, and many schools scrambled to cobble together some kind of assessment,” said Black.

Naisa secretary-general Ebrahim Ansur said the NCCC’s proposal would have to be presented to the relevant subcommittees and then Cabinet would take the final decision on its approval.

Schools which could offer online learning can start to do so, Ansur said, however, he said the alliance had found the more effective form of teaching and learning was in the classroom.

Ansur said it had also been determined that in the second wave, high school pupils were now at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19 compared to primary school pupils.

Meanwhile, the UJ/HSRC Covid-19 democracy survey released this week showed 53% of adults thought schools should not re-open until the current situation with Covid-19 improved.

The online survey, conducted between 30 December 2020 and 6 January, was completed by 10, 618 participants. “

“The findings from the survey show that the majority of adults oppose the re-opening of schools while Covid-19 cases continue at their current high levels,” Professor Carin Runciman, UJ Associate Professor at the Centre for Social Change noted in the study.

“This opposition is strongest amongst the most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged sections of society, who are less likely to have confidence in the ability of their schools to provide a safe environment for [pupils].”

Regarding the need for a ‘solid plan’, Black said at this point it seemed as if the DBE was “confident of more of the same”.

“Most people I am in touch with who work in ‘average’ schools have reported that not much teaching and learning is happening, between all the chop and change, closures, sickness, screening etc,” said Black.

“Unfortunately, I think we missed a golden opportunity between March and December last year to really address deep-seated shortcomings in the system, which would’ve put us on a better footing to start 2021 safely and with a focus on learning. That opportunity was not taken.”

Findings from the study undertaken by the Centre for Social Change, University of Johannesburg in partnership with the Development, Capable and Ethical State of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), demonstrated;

• 53% of adults think schools should remain closed until the situation improves.
• 19% of adults believe that schools should re-open for grade 7 and grade 12 learners only.
• 19% of adults think schools should re-open for all grades
• 9% of adults ‘don’t know’.

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