1,678 teachers had died of Covid-19 between March 2020 and February 2021, she said.
“This includes a number of senior staff members within provinces. It's had a devastating effect on us.”
Through the education employment initiative, aimed at alleviating joblessness as part of Ramaphosa's stimulus programme, 320,000 unemployed young people had been employed as education and general education assistants, Motshekga said.
These teacher aides were helping to close gaps in the education system left by the pandemic.
“Covid-19 has forced schools to use a different timetable — they helped close gaps [in the timetable] and continue the work [involving] coding and robotics etc. in schools.”
Money for these initiatives has been provided for by the minister of finance, who allocated R7bn to implement the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative.
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