Thursday is D-Day for teachers who haven’t been vaccinated to do so.
Teacher unions are encouraging members to vaccinate, as this is the last day of the official vaccination programme for educators.
Though more than 582,000 education sector workers were initially targeted for the programme which started on June 23, the number has risen to 789,554 and now includes food handlers, janitors and support staff from private schools and early childhood development centres that are based on school premises.
Basic education minister Angie Motshekga said during a media briefing on Wednesday that up until Tuesday 400,000 had been vaccinated.
The National Teachers’ Union (Natu) has asked for the vaccination programme to be extended by a week or two, to cater for those who had not been vaccinated because of recently testing positive for the virus.
Natu general secretary Cynthia Barnes said some of the teachers could also not be vaccinated because they had taken the flu virus vaccine.
She said that 90% of the 50,000-strong membership had been vaccinated.
If we can find a day or two in between to mop up, that would be great.
— Basil Manuel, executive director of Naptosa
Basil Manuel, executive director of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), said the number of people now being targeted was almost 790,000 because “unfortunately there was a breakdown in terms of some of the projections and planning”.
“What the department didn’t consider was how many schools still kept interns employed as part of the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative, despite their contracts having expired.”
He said that the department “has no way of knowing how many governing body paid support staff there are”.
“They far outnumber the teachers. There was an undercount.”
He said though he was in favour of the programme being extended for teachers, he was also “conscious that it’s in the hands of the department of health because they are moving on to the next group”.
“If we can find a day or two in between to mop up, that would be great.”
Ben Machipi, general secretary of the Professional Educators’ Union (PEU), also encouraged teachers to vaccinate saying it was “safe to do so”.
“Though this is not compulsory, we don’t expect the employer to allow them [teachers with comorbidities] to work from home any more because the opportunity for them to be vaccinated has been provided.”
Meanwhile, Motshekga said her department has requested a special meeting with the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) on Friday to discuss a draft collective agreement which aims to “guide the operational requirements for educators following the implementation of the basic education sector Covid-19 vaccination programme”.
She said that they were going to ask the department of health to allow for an extension of the programme “to mop up the outstanding vaccinations”.
“We want to use the time to conclude the programme properly and accommodate those excluded who recently tested positive for Covid-19 and those who took the flu vaccine.”
Motshekga said that they respected an individual’s right not to be vaccinated, adding: “However, we would like to appeal to all our personnel to get the vaccine.”
She said that when schools reopen they will expect all teachers, including those with comorbidities, to return to work.
“We have discussed this matter with the teacher unions and all are in support of this position.”
A total of 16,000 teachers were granted special leave due to comorbidities.
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