Many Eastern Cape schools not ready to reopen

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Eastern Cape chairperson of the National Association of SGBs, Mongameli Peter, said thousands of schools in Nelson Mandela Bay, in the Karoo district up to the former Transkei, are without protective kits.

“Many schools in and around Uitenage, Butterworth and in former Transkei have no PPEs. I don’t agree with children going back to school because we are not happy about the safety measures. No schools have been sanitised and received protective equipment in and around Cradock as well. No consultation between the SGB and principals about the hiring of people to assist at schools to help kids.”

Motshekga announced a fortnight ago that the schools, which were closed when the president announced a hard lockdown in March, would reopen in a phased manner during the more relaxed Level 3 lockdown.

Outlining her strategy, she said pupils in grades 12 and 7 would go back first on 1 June.

READ HERE | Motshekga expects teaching delays of up to 1 week for some schools

But many are rejecting this idea.

In light of Eastern Cape schools’ state of readiness and the onset of a cold winter, Peter proposed August as a better date for pupils to return.

We ask you to keep your child at home until further notice

One of the schools that has not received PPEs is West Bank Secondary School in King William’s Town.

West Bank Secondary school principal Branwell Hill announced in a letter to parents on the school’s Facebook page on Thursday night that pupils in grades 7 and 12 must remain at home.

SAHRC requests different date

The South African Human Rights Commission on Thursday said it had written to Motshekga to persuade her to reconsider her decision.

READ | Rights commission says schools not ready for return of pupils

SAHRC spokesperson Gushwell Brooks said the commission conducted independent monitoring of schools for readiness in all nine provinces.

He said the commission also consulted various stakeholders, including teachers’ unions and school governing bodies before deciding that it would not support the reopening.

He said: “Feedback from our provincial offices is that many schools have not achieved the required readiness to receive learners. Most observations from our provincial offices highlight the shortage or inadequacy of water and sanitation as well as personal protective equipment. Some even reported that the necessary training was still outstanding. Other observations made during monitoring in provinces are that the levels of readiness for many rural schools are significantly low. The monitoring continues,” said Brooks.

“Whilst the commission supports the opening of schools as soon as possible in order to give effect to the rights of learners to education – a matter of great national importance to our country in many aspects – it believes that this should be done in tandem with reasonable and adequate measures and efforts to safeguard the right to health of learners and educators.

“It is thus important that necessary minimum conditions that need to be met for the reopening of schools, such as access to adequate clean water and sanitation, social distancing, the availability of personal protective equipment, training and the general sanitisation of schools, are met,” Brooks said in the statement.

Eastern Cape education MEC Fundile Gade’s spokesperson, Vuyiseka Mboxela, said Gade would brief the media on Friday at 13:00 about schools’ readiness.

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