The Educators’ Union of South Africa (EUSA) has called for the immediate shutdown of all South African schools.

The union said this is because some provinces are experiencing the beginnings of the third wave coronavirus outbreak.

According to EUSA the lack of PPEs at public schools are the cause of the increased cases of infected learners and teachers.

Scelo Bhengu, EUSA President, said with Gauteng, Free State and the Eastern Cape having declared that they have reached a third wave, it is inevitable the whole country will be in third wave soon.

Bhengu said Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, the North West and the Western Cape have been reported to also be experiencing sustained increases over the last few weeks.

“Schools are central to the contribution of the resurgence as safety protocols are being ignored mostly by principals,” said Bhengu.

He added that it is a known fact that almost all public schools do not have PPEs while cases of infected learners are growing tremendously.

Bhengu said public schools last received their set of PPEs, only one mask per teacher, in June 2020.

Andre De Bruyn, EUSA Spokesperson said more than 70% of schools in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo still do not have running water, “which puts the lives of our teachers and learners at risk as they cannot wash their hands after using pit toilets”.

De Bruyn said the union has received worrying reports of principals who hide new reported cases from their colleagues and the learner community.

“This means that contacts are not traced and advised to quarantine or get tested,” said De Bruyn.

The push to close schools comes after the department of basic education announced this week that it would be postponing all contact sports over fears of a resurgence in cases.

Department of Basic Education Spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said it became evident that despite following protocols as guided by the directions on extramural activities and the Standard Operating Procedure on the prevention, containment and management of Covid-19 in schools, contact sport still contribute to the spread of the virus.

“In this regard, all sporting activities have been suspended with immediate effect until the clusters outbreak is subsequently over with no further cases reported including the preparatory school sport,” said Mhlanga.

But De Bruyn said the issues go far beyond contact that happens during contact sport.

He said while EUSA welcomes DBE’s decision to suspend contact sport in schools, many learners keep in close contact in the mornings when learners go to school, after school when they go home and “even more critically in the classrooms and during lunch breaks”.

He said in some school learners are only screened when they get inside the classroom.

He added that schools have teacher and general assistants at the schools “but these people are largely used to wash cars belonging to principals”

“We have long warned the department to stop its obsession of going back to what it calls pre-covid levels and instead focus on building a new system that will be in line with the fourth industrial revolution and the new normal.

“But as it stands, the last time nurses went to public schools was once in 2020,” said De Bruyn.

The post Union calls for schools in South Africa to close as third Covid-19 wave hits appeared first on Inside Education.

The 38-year-old teacher accused of allegedly raping a Grade 10 pupil from Umqele Secondary School last week has handed himself over to the police on Wednesday.

The alleged rapist went on the run following the reporting of the incident to the District.

Gauteng police spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo confirmed that the suspect handed himself in at Tembisa Police Station on Wednesday.

Masondo said the teacher has been charged with rape and is expected to appear at the Tembisa Magistrate Court on Thursday.

Inside Education reported on Wednesday that the alleged rapist was caught in the act by another teacher.

The learner was taken to the doctor for medical examinations by the school principal Friday last week.

The learner’s parents opened a case against the teacher at the Ivory Park Police Station.

Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi said he welcomed the arrest.

Gauteng Education spokesperson Steve Mabona said disciplinary proceedings against the alleged rapist are already underway.

Mabona said the MEC is a firm opponent of any violence, particularly gender-based assaults on learners.“We are not going to tolerating such incidents in and around our schools,” said Mabona. 

Mabona said the man will also face a charge of absconding as he had left work without permission.

“We always had faith and trust in the police to ensure that the suspect ends up behind bars. We leave all the matters in the capable and trustworthy hands of our judicial system and trust that justice will prevail,” he said.

The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) also called for swift action to be taken against a the teacher.

The union is deeply concerned about this incident as it dents the image of our noble profession.

Tseliso Ledimo, SADTU Provincial Secretary said this situation also instils fear and anxiety in schools which are supposed to be safe havens where quality teaching and learning should take place.

“We expect the due disciplinary process to be completed as soon as possible.

“We also call on law enforcement institutions to deploy the necessary resources to subject the alleged perpetrator to the due process of the law,” said Ledimo.

The post Teacher accused of raping Grade 10 pupil hands himself over to the police appeared first on Inside Education.

The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, said his department will in the coming weeks submit to Cabinet a proposal looking at funding options for the “missing middle”.

Nzimande made this announcement when he tabled the department’s Budget Vote during a mini plenary of Parliament this week.

Nzimande said his department and stakeholders are examining new mechanisms, possibly backed by both public and private sectors, to support students in the so-called “missing middle” income bracket.

He said revised options for student funding will be considered.

The term “missing middle” has gained currency in the higher education sector and refers to those students who come from working class households that do not qualify for the National Student Finance Aid Scheme (NSFAS) while at the same time, they cannot afford higher education.

In an interview with Inside Education, University of Johannesburg Vice-Chancellor Professor Tshilidzi Marwala said students who fall under this category are not necessarily from poor families.

“These are people who are not poor enough to qualify for NSFAS, but they are not rich enough to afford higher education. Say for example, the father is a teacher, the mother unemployed with four children, three of whom are at university. This family cannot afford higher education for their childen,” said Marwala.

Adding that, “For some reason, NSFAS does not take into consideration the number of children within one family”.

“They look at how much money the family actually earns. And teachers probably earn around R350,000 per annum. There is no way this family is going to qualify for NSFAS. This is why they are the missing middle,” he said.

Adding that most in society do not seem to realise that these children sit at home after finishing matric because of lack of access to finance. They do not qualify for bank loans and other sources of funding, he said.

Marwala said to help with the issue, UJ launched a fundraising campaign in support the missing middle students.

He told Inside Education that about 5 000 academically deserving students at UJ are currently classified as part of the missing middle.

“The University has assisted almost all of them by paying their registration fees for the academic year. And yet, they still need more support because they need basics like devices and the ability to pay for transport,” he said.

Last month, Nzimande made a presentation to the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) where he spoke about the crisis of the missing middle at institutions of higher learning.

Nzimande said the South African government still does not have a clear way to deal with those students who do not meet NSFAS’ financial eligibility criteria, but still struggle to afford higher education.

According to the minister, in 2016, a ministerial task team was appointed to develop a funding and support model for poor and the missing middle students.

In his presentation made to the NEC, Nzimande said in an attempt to solve this crisis, the ministerial task team developed the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme (ISFAP) which assumed that government would cover full or part of the equity required to cover bad debt incurred by students.

“But this assumption was not supported by the National Treasury,” said Nzimande.

He said his department’s engagement with the National Treasury concluded that a loan-based system would be very difficult without government support.

This is because in all the modelling done, the bad debt, capital repayment, and capital interest was always bigger than the repayments and interest paid by the student, said Nzimande.

In his budget vote presentation this week, Nzimande said there is now added pressure to find a solution this problem. He said this pressure was accentuated by thousands of students who submitted appeals after their NSFAS applications were rejected.

The post South Africa to examine new mechanisms to support the “missing middle” appeared first on Inside Education.

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