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The government has put a plan in place to ensure that learners are still being educated during the lockdown.
Elijah Mhlanga, spokesperson for the Department of Basic Education (DBE), states that the government has had to put a plan in place to close the gap, as schools were forced to shut right towards the end of the first term and there has been no schooling occurring in the second term due to the nationwide lockdown.
The government has made online platforms available to learners in order to keep them engaged in their education during the lockdown period. These platforms have learning resources such as activity sheets and videos.
“We didn’t want to allow a situation where our learners are just sitting at home doing nothing, when there are innovative platforms that could be used to reach them or to get education to them in some way,” states Mhlanga.
He adds that there has been a huge response from South African learners on these online platforms, even though not all learners may have access to them.
Despite this, the learners that are able to access these educational platforms are able to share with those who are unable to, with some lessons and videos being downloadable and shareable on WhatsApp as well as other platforms.
According to Mhlanga, the overall response from the learners who access the sites has been good.
This plan complements the government’s initial instruction to schools to give learners homework through activity plans and to start WhatsApp groups in order to keep in communication with the learners during lockdown.
When asked about the DBE’s plan going forward, Mhlanga stated that when schools open, all learners will be required to wear masks. In addition to this, sanitisers will be available in all classrooms and surfaces will be disinfected regularly.
The government is hoping to deal with overcrowding in schools by taking grade 12 learners from high schools to a camp where they will learn and be screened. The classrooms occupied by the matriculants will be used to teach other learners in order to decrease the amount of people in one classroom.
