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Staff Reporter|
BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga has called for the social distancing space between pupils to be reduced.
The Disaster Management Act currently only allows children to be a meter apart from each other but in some schools where infrastructure doesn’t allow it, children have to take turns on which days they are allowed at school.
All COVID-19 protocols remain in place in South Africa and includes social distancing between desks of up to a meter.
The law says primary schools and schools for learners with special education needs that return to the traditional and daily attendance timetabling model, as well as school hostels, must ensure strict compliance with social distancing measures and minimum health protocols, which include the wearing of face masks, the washing of hands and the use of hand sanitizers, and must comply with safety measures on COVID-19
Motshekga said that they were consulting the Cooperative Governance Department to further reduce this to allow more children to attend school.
Motshekga said that while children were back in the classroom, negotiations were continuing to reduce the COVID-19 regulations in schools, requiring children to be separated by up to a meter.
But with some schools, which simply don’t have the space, it is excluding some children from attending class full time.
The department said that 80% of teachers were vaccinated and with children 12 years and older eligible, parents were encouraged to make sure their children got a jab too.
The teacher unions have reiterated that they were not consulted in regard to the new proposed reduced social distance of 0,5m in primary schools.
“Our advice to schools in the interim is that where the 1m cannot be complied with, the schools should follow the deviation provisions as contained in the Gazette and to continue with rotational timetabling. This is done in the best interest of the child, educators and the community and to ensure that schools do not become super-spreaders but rather the barriers against the transmission,” according to teacher unions.
* Inside Education