Back-to-school dates havoc could ‘ruin whole year’

The conflicting and last-minute messaging over when grades can return to class is wreaking havoc with Eastern Cape schools, particularly those where resources are scant.

Not two days after the Eastern Cape education department announced that it would fall in line with the education ministry’s directive for only grades 6, 11 and R to return to school on Monday,  the department issued an “instruction note”  that these grades would not return to school until July 20.

But according to the instruction note,  released by superintendent general Temba Kojana on Sunday, schools which were able to receive pupils — those which complied with Covid-19 standard operating procedures — could continue with academic learning.

This was on condition that the schools applied for permission to deviate from the department’s return dates.

A number of former model C schools took to social media and sent communication to parents, stating they were given permission to deviate from the return dates.

A Facebook post on the Cambridge High School page stated: “Those schools that had applied to phase in grades gradually have been given the permission to continue the process.”

A letter issued by Selborne Primary said the “current media storm about returning to school is very much about the lack of adequate PPE and sanitisation facilities”.

“There are a great many schools in our country that are not ready and will not cope with the influx of pupils. As it stands, Selborne Primary is ready in terms of PPE and sanitisation facilities,” the letter said.

For schools in the lower quintiles, such as  Makhazi Public School outside  East London, it is clear there is still a long way to go.

The school is yet to receive water tanks and water and the toilets are unsafe.

School governing body member Mxolisi Mbityi said: “Our top priority is to try to save the academic year. However with all this up and down and shifting of dates, the academic year is looking bleak. I don’t know if it can be saved.

“We opened on June 8, as prescribed by the department, but we soon discovered a positive (Covid-19) case at the school. The school then had to close to test the affected people and allow for decontamination. The closure of the school obviously had an effect on academic learning, and our programme had to change.”

Mbityi said they were now discussing a proposal with parents to phase in the next grades on July 13, “God willing”.

Rueben Siqaza, chair of the school governing body at Byletts Combined School in Mooiplaas, said the department’s last-minute decision to shift the dates was “disruptive” for pupils’ learning.

“By the looks of things not much can be reaped, academically, from this school year. Could the department of education not have focused on grades 12 and 7 only? Because they are the grades which are progressing to the next phase.

“Then they could make a plan for other grades to remain at home and make other means for those grades,” Siqaza said.

The National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) association has said the department’s decision to reopen schools for other grades was “reckless and ill-advised”.

“Since the reopening of grade 7 and 12, there has not been any effective learning and teaching in any way, the schools have since been opened to close,” the NASGB said.

The organisation said the shortage and poor quality of [provided] personal protective equipment, water tanks without water, and adequate ablution facilities still plagued many Eastern Cape schools.

The association proposes “institutionalised schooling, which will mainly focus on Grade 12, and allow for learners, educators, non-educators and all personnel to be housed in these facilities”.

The NASGB’s provincial chair, Monga Peter, said the union had noted the provincial department’s last-minute deviation but “either way its all still the same for the NASGB”.

“The second cohort of grades shouldn’t return to school. Because of the rise in Covid-19 infections among schools, not much learning has been achieved at schools which have been open.”

By Gugu Phandle – DispatchLIVE