He said of the 2,131 public schools in the province, 1,977 had been “risk-free”, meaning they had not reported any Covid-19 incidents.
“Only 154 schools opened and closed because of Covid.” These schools were decontaminated and reopened.
It was a similar trend with special schools. Lesufi said of the 129 special schools in the province, 105 were incident-free and 25 reported Covid-19 related disruptions.
Of the 713 independent schools, 656 were risk-free.
The province had in the past few weeks reopened its schools to accommodate grade R, 6, 7 and 11 pupils.
“Grade R had the lowest attendance,” Lesufi said, adding that only 23% of the province’s grade Rs had returned to school.
Meanwhile, 53% of grade 6 pupils have returned to school, 58% of grade 7s and 61% of grade 11s, he said.