Back to school for all – unions

FULL attendance at schools emerged as the key theme for teacher unions this week.

On Friday the country’s five teacher unions met with vaccinologist Professor Shabir Madhi on the safe resumption of the academic year.

The meeting came with the backdrop that schools in Gauteng, the Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West reopened for teachers on Monday. The pupils from the aforementioned provinces returned to class on Wednesday. Pupils in the Western Cape, Kwazulu-natal, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape will start the school year on January 19.

Madhi said it was an information-sharing meeting, where all the union leaders appeared to be committed to mobilising their constituencies and advocating for the full opening of schools.

Feedback from the meeting was that high levels of immunity had been achieved, currently at about 80%, which was across the board regardless of age or profession.

“Covid-19 is here to stay and life must still go on,” Madhi said.

So, adaptations were necessary with vaccinations being the highest priority.

In attendance were the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa), the National Teachers’ Union (Natu), the Professional Educators Union (Peu), the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the SA Teachers’ Union (Saou).

Chris Klopper, executive director of Saou, said in light of the low risks based on scientific evidence, the learning losses outweigh the possible risks.

“It is imperative to return to full attendance as soon as possible in accordance with scientific evidence, and cross-ventilation is imperative.”

Basil Manuel, executive director of Naptosa, said one of the highlights of the meeting was determining the pros and cons of either rotational or full attendance.

“It’s about rotational learning that is being used at the moment and whether it should stay, but our concerns are about the sustainability of the present modalities. We are in trouble when it comes to learning losses and we would like to see as many of our kids full-time at school as possible.”

Although they did not attend the meeting as they are not teacher unions, other representatives of the academic world shared their thoughts on the 2022 academic year.

Linda Shezi, general secretary of the SA Principals’ Association, said they looked forward to the safe return of our pupils and staff.

“We have learnt a lot in the past years regarding safety protocols for Covid-19. We also look forward to the time when we can have the full return and attendance of our pupils instead of a rotational timetable. This has had a huge impact on teaching and learning, socialisation of our pupils, feeding our pupils where feeding programmes are implemented,” he said.

Shezi added that in schools where school fees were charged, there was a hesitancy from parents to pay due to the rotation timetable.

Chief executive of the Federation of Associations of Governing Bodies of South African Schools, Jaco Deacon, agreed with the general consensus about the full attendance of pupils.

“We would like to see a full return of pupils, but the science should lead us. The current directives make provision that pupils can take part in contact sport without masks, but cannot sit next to one another with masks in a class. It does not make any sense.”

On Wednesday Education Minister Angie Motshekga made the call for social distancing space between pupils to be reduced while all other Covid-19 protocols remained in place.

Motshekga said that they were consulting and negotiating with the Co-operative Governance Department to further reduce this to allow more children to attend school.