The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng has called on the Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi to ensure that all schools are fixed and ready before the schools reopen during this national lockdown period.
While Gauteng schools are gearing up to reopen, MEC Lesufi indicated some of the things that his department has done in preparation, such as allocating a cleaning budget to all schools to hire cleaners. Lesufi also highlighted some of the measures that will be put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus in schools, such as ensuring that all learners and educators receive masks, face clothes, soap and sanitizers on a weekly basis.
The district offices will be used as war rooms; scholar transport will be sanitized; the department will employ substitute teachers to help reduce number of learners to at least 20 per class; 67 schools will be fenced and schools with low water pressure will be provided with water tanks, said Lesufi in response to the DA’s oral questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).
“The DA is worried that some of these measures will not be implemented when the schools reopen hence we are urging MEC Lesufi to implement them as soon as possible to ensure that teaching and learning continues uninterrupted when the schools reopen,” the party said.
DA Member of Parliament Khume Ramulifho says they are calling on the MEC to ensure that all district offices are functioning and have all the necessary resources needed to provide to schools when they reopen. Ramulifho says the department should engage with private scholar transport to ensure that all learners have PPEs all the time.
“The safety of both our learners and teachers must be a priority for the department when the schools reopen. The department should also monitor the schools’ spending of the allocated cleaning budget to ensure that it is spent accordingly.”
Meanwhile, the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) in the province says the Department of Basic Education is failing to submit a clear plan on how it is going to push the programme of learning without any infections that can be counted to learners.
PAC says there is no enough scientific evidence that led the department to the decision that it has taken to reopen schools at the start of next month, which does not give them the assurance that the department’s decision was taken based on a scientific evidence.
PAC Gauteng provincial secretary of Education Yandisa Jiba says basic education minister Angie Motshekga's announcement shows that the department is gambling with the lives of learners and educators who could be having pre-existing illnesses that could make it easy to be infected by Covid-19.
“The most concerning thing here is that the department has not shown they are ready to run the department, even when there is no lockdown or Covid-19. It is for that reason that we think the department has never been able to do so.”
Jiba also advised parents to help their children with their studies, and added that the PAC will also try to help the department if there is a shortage of teachers because, according to him, the party has qualified teachers within its structures.
Cover image: city-press
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