KZN premier and MEC to assess schools’ readiness as teachers return to work on Thursday

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sihle Zikalala and the province’s MEC for education Kwazi Mshengu will on Thursday assess the readiness of schools to reopen next week Monday.

The two will visit Sisebenzile High, Lihlithemba High, and Ubuhlebemfundo High in Ndwedwe, in the north of Durban.

Teachers and school management teams numbering close to 91,000 in the province are expected to go back to work on Thursday after the KZN Covid-19 command council postponed their return to schools “in order to ensure compliance with all the non-negotiables agreed between the minister of basic education” and other stakeholders.

“This included ensuring that all schools are cleaned and PPEs had been delivered to all schools,” the provincial government said in a statement on Wednesday.

The provincial government said the province has the largest education system with the highest number of matriculants, Grade 7 teachers and school management teams.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the province has said that a meeting of the province’s education portfolio committee last Friday “did not inspire confidence” on schools’ readiness to welcome back about 367-000 Grades 7 and 12 pupils.

DA MPL Dr Imran Keeka said: “Instead, the online meeting raised more concerns rather than the assurances sought from the province’s department of education. The committee was also an exercise in frustration, with education head of department (HOD), Dr Enock Nzama and his officials’ non-committal over safety issues as well as firm timelines around these. To make matters worse, the HOD also tried to defend indefensible excessive spending on various safety and sanitisation items while hiding behind a Treasury document.”

Keeka said following the meeting, the DA cannot respond to parents with “a resounding yes” that their children will be safe when they return to school next week.

The MPL accused the provincial department of education of being “led by the nose” by the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) after the latter stopped teachers from going back to work on Monday.

“As it stands, there is no further indication that there will be a disruption to the resumption of duties, the possibility looms large though with another union before the courts attempting to halt the opening of schools,” Keeka said.

Following its oversight programme of assessing schools’ readiness in the province, Keeka said the DA had the following concerns:

• While many schools have received personal protective equipment [PPE], soap and sanitisers with thermometers for screening also provided, the DA is not convinced that all schools have made provisions to immediately isolate anyone who is found to be unwell during the screening process
• We are also not convinced that all schools have adequate access to water and proper toilets or sanitation facilities. To date, there is no firm commitment from the DoE that schools without running water will all receive static water tanks and more importantly, that they will be regularly filled
• We are not at all persuaded that all schools have safe and proper access measures in place when it comes to entry and exit points. We can’t have just anyone waltzing onto the premises through porous fences without screening
• There is also insufficient clarity about ensuring safe physical distancing – both during learner transport and when all grades are phased in and
• While screening will be done by community health workers on loan from the department of health – with department of public works expanded public works programme (EPWP) workers set to augment this role – the DA’s current findings in some areas indicate that there are not enough staff and no EPWP staff at present to perform this function. The question then becomes – will teachers be expected to do this?

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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