Pupils are being used as pawns in a political game, says analyst

As momentum grows for schools to be closed until after the Covid-19 peak has passed, Education Minister Angie Motshekga has been accused of using pupils – especially children from poor communities – as pawns in a political game.

The minister cancelled an urgent meeting with teacher unions at the last minute yesterday, which the teacher representatives viewed as an attempt to undermine them and a refusal to take the crisis seriously.

Political analyst Xolani Dube said Motshekga was trying to “cover her back” by insisting classes across the system returned to normal in a phased way. He said in the Covid-19 crisis, the ANC had failed to deliver the quality education it promised to South Africans.

He added that the government failed to build the necessary infrastructure for schools to function in the pandemic crisis, including e-learning equipment. The minister was embarrassed that public schools were not using e-learning and the infrastructure at township and rural schools remained dilapidated.

Motshekga was clearly scared, said Dube, that children in poor schools may have nothing to show at the end of the year while their counterparts in private schools prepared well … not only with e-learning education but also in the fight against Covid-19. He added: “Angie is in a real corner.”

The SA Democratic Teachers Union said schools should close until after the peak of Covid-19. The union said its decision was informed by the fact that the virus was reaching its peak in SA and the winter season, when influenza was rife, was upon the country.

It suggested that while schools were closed there should be coordinated radio lessons by teachers and the use of television programmes, cellphones and education apps for children to access education.

Sadtu’s decision was supported by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which said the government’s handling of schools’ reopening to date “had been anything but reassuring”.

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said: “We hope this issue can be resolved through dialogue, but we also want to remind the minister that the safety of our members and pupils is non-negotiable. Teachers are selling their labour and not their lives.”

The National Health and Allied Workers Union supported Sadtu and said the school break would also give the government ample opportunity to put its house in order. Another influential education union, the National Professional Teachers Association of SA, also joined the call yesterday for schools to be closed.

One South Africa Movement leader Mmusi Maimane vowed to challenge Motshekga in court over the decision to send children back to school. Maimane was buoyed by his movement’s collection of at least 192,000 signatures of people opposed to the reopening of schools Dube said: “I have been arguing for this academic year to be cancelled so that the department can prepare a well-planned curriculum. That break will also give the president enough time to concentrate on other matters.”

The closing of schools would also enable the rollout of information and communications technology infrastructure to schools and training of teachers to operate it.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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