The following comments were delivered during a virtual press conference on the opening of schools.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has written to President Cyril Ramaphosa with submissions in support of schools remaining open during the risk-adjusted Covid-19 lockdown, in the midst of growing opposition.
Our view is that only schools without the necessary Covid-19 protocols in place, or schools in areas where the health system is failing, should remain closed until they have all the necessary required equipment, resources and support from the health system to ensure they can open safely. The risks of closing all schools are considerable. Schools are not “ready to close” and are not ready to provide education if they are to be closed.
Those who have argued for schools to close may have noble intentions, but they do not understand the consequences closures will have on learners and communities as a whole. The DA, therefore, based our submission to the President the five different groups which have an interest in whether schools are open or closed:
- Learners:
Leading educational and scientific research have demonstrated that children’s vulnerability to Covid-19 is extremely low – lower than their vulnerability to influenza. Their need to attend school is of supreme importance, particularly in a developing country such as our own. Unlike the developed world, online learning cannot realistically replace face-to-face teaching for the majority of children in South Africa. Our internet coverage is too poor and uneven. Too many children, and even teachers, are not internet-literate and there is the ongoing problem of data availability for the poor. Many learners also depend upon school feeding schemes to provide them with nutritious food daily. With the exception of the Western Cape, which kept school feeding going during the lockdown, the majority of schools discontinued school feeding during that time. And finally, schools provide learners with a place to spend a productive day, to socialize and to build their social networks. The longer schools remain closed, the higher the risk of learners having to repeat their academic year.
- Teachers:
Teachers are no different from thousands of other employees who have gone back to work during the pandemic. Each day the country’s workforce go to work, they have to face the possibility of infection, deal with all the health safety requirements in their workplaces, deal with their fellow workers’ anxieties, and manage the fact that often their workplace will close down for deep cleaning. Teachers need to realise that thousands of other South Africans are back at work and that coping with the day to day difficulties of the virus are going to be part of our reality for months to come. Of course, if teachers are to continue working, they need all the support possible in managing this difficult situation. If teachers, however, do not go back to work, we believe that the taxpayer should not continue to pay them for staying at home. Now that the lockdown is partially lifted, those civil servants who can go back to work should indeed do so. Their medical risk is the same as any other profession, and there should be no special dispensation for teachers.
- Parents:
All parents have an interest in their children being educated, in their education continuing seamlessly, and in them advancing from Grade to Grade without hindrance. Some parents concerned about the virus may opt to undertake to homeschool, an excellent option made available by the DBE. However, homeschooling is impossible for working parents. Parents returning to work have undertaken to do on the understanding that schools will be available to educate and take care of their children while they are at work. This is a vital societal and economic reality. While parents may be concerned about the well-being of their children the overwhelming majority of them have an interest in schools remaining open.
- Employers:
Employers have an overall interest in the education of the population. As the employers of future school-leavers, they have a clear interest in the quality and quantity of education those school leavers have received. No employer desires a poorly-educated workforce and most are very concerned that our education system is already weak and not producing the kinds of skills they need. Employers of the parents of school-going children also have an interest in keeping schools open in that their employees will come to work confident that their children are safe, stimulated and supported.
- Society as a whole
South African society as a whole has an interest in keeping schools open. The reasons for this are economic and social. Economic, because functional schooling produces the skills the society needs. Social, because proper schooling socialises young people, teaching them how to properly engage with the world.
Every South African has an interest in schools remaining open, especially learners and instead of causing further anxiety, we need to show support for the education sector. It is for this reason that the DA not only sent submissions to President Ramaphosa to make the argument for schools to remain open, we have also sent solutions. As part of our submissions, we have proposed the following:
- A widespread public education campaign, addressing schools, teachers, learners and parents, as to the risks to which learners, teachers and those at home are exposed when schools are open. This will need to address the issue of rates of infection by age group, rates of infection when proper PPE is in place, rates of mild, severe and fatal infection by age group, rates of transmission by age group and similar matters.
- Create a helpline offering helpful and sympathetic advice to individual teachers, parents and learners concerned about their situation.
- Create a whistleblower outlet for reporting of schools which are not conforming to safety requirements.
- Ensure that there is a more supportive public approach to those who are working in this difficult time (not only teachers), along the lines of the “thankyou” campaigns in the UK and Europe.
The DA once again urge Minister Angie Motshekga and President Ramaphosa to remain resolute on the matter of schools, in not to give in to the whims of political pressures. While many objections have come from a genuine place of concern, in some instances there have been deliberate attempts to grandstand, fearmonger and disrupt the educations of millions of children, especially the poor. The best interests of all our children should be our main concern.
Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court