Losing a month could be like losing a finger: minister on schools reopening

Basic education minister Angie Motshekga is determined to get all primary school pupils back to class by July 26.

In amended directions gazetted on Tuesday, she indicated that school management teams and teachers at primary schools must start preparing institutions from July 19 “for the return to the daily attendance and traditional timetabling model on July 26”.

Schools closed for pupils on Wednesday and will reopen on July 19.

The original date for the reopening of schools before the July holidays were brought forward was July 26.

Now, pupils in most primary schools follow a rotational timetable, by which they attend school on alternate days.

On Monday Motshekga said plans to reopen on July 19 remained in place, but it was agreed “we have to monitor the virus and get advice from the health department”.

“We will still keep it [the date] as we had agreed. But we will not be irresponsible if there are still difficulties by the time we want to open and bring more learners.”

Said Motshekga: “We will take the decision close to [the] time if we want to change. But for now we are not changing any of the plans.”

She said recently that pupils’ 12 years of schooling are arranged according to the curriculum that has to be covered.

“If you lose a year, it’s not nothing, it’s a big thing. If we don’t arrest the current instability in the sector, for example, a loss of a month could be like losing a finger. We are going to have a generation that comes with lots of deficits because we have lost lots of time.”

It’s difficult to keep things together if kids are going to come this week and they are not coming next week. It really makes things difficult, but provinces are doing all they possibly can to defend the space that is still left for us to do. 

—  Basic education minister Angie Motshekga

She said the education sector is very unstable, “especially because of the differentiated timetabling”.

“It’s difficult to keep things together if kids are going to come this week and they are not coming next week. It really makes things difficult, but provinces are doing all they possibly can to defend the space that is still left for us to do quality learning and teaching.”

Stellenbosch University researcher Nic Spaull said recently that “rotational attendance of pupils is a disaster that is going to have long-term, significant negative consequences for children”.

“If the department doesn’t do something, we could potentially have a lost generation on our hands.”

He said pupils at 80% of public schools, mostly no-fee ones, were still only attending class every second or third day.

Thomas Hlongwane, president of the South African Principals’ Association in Gauteng, which has about 400 members who are principals and deputy principals, said affluent schools are ready for the full return of all primary school pupils on July 26, but not  township schools.

“The matter [of the full return of primary school pupils] was discussed even before the third wave of the pandemic. It’s not compulsory and it’s for the schools that can manage.”

He said schools that can’t bring all pupils back will continue with rotational timetabling, “but they should work towards getting everyone back”.