The Gauteng Education Department said that “as expected” teaching and learning commenced at the embattled Roodepoort Primary School. Learner attendance on Thursday was 912‚ up from the 643 who arrived at the reopened school on Wednesday.. “The department has made arrangements for a team of psychologists to provide counselling to both learners and educators as a form of debriefing at the school‚” a statement said.“The school has already started implementing a catch-up programme to ensure that learners make up for the time lost during disruptions at the school.”The school’s routine was last month disrupted by violent protests over the appointment of its principal‚ Nomathemba Molefe‚ and her deputies.It was reported that the protests were believed to be racially motivated as the school is in the predominantly coloured area of Davidsonville‚ and some parents did not want a black woman in charge.In August‚ following extensive consultation with Gauteng education MEC Panyaza Lesufi and a visit by Makhura‚ a decision was taken to intervene by temporarily closing the school and to move pupils and teachers to Lufhereng Primary School.Earlier this week‚ Gauteng Premier David Makhura accepted the recommendations by the Roodepoort Primary School mediation committee which had been tasked to help resolve the impasse at the school.The premier said: “We have decided that the school will open on September 8‚ 2015‚ with formal learning and teaching commencing on September 9 as recommended by the mediation team.”Education MEC Panyazi Lesufi said on Monday that the department would do everything to ensure that the mediation team’s recommendations were fully implemented.Security at the school would be reinforced to ensure that the school environment was safe and conducive for effective teaching and learning.Noting that learners had lost valuable time for learning‚ the education department would implement a programme to assist learners to catch up on the curriculum content.On Thursday‚ the education department said the catch-up programme includes the following:- The deployment of subject advisors to the school to work closely with educators to identify gaps and make up for them;- The extension of contact time by up to an hour daily; and- Extra classes during school holidays...