Covid-19 knocks all spheres of teaching

School attendance, matric farewells, graduations as well as local and international excursions are among the many educational activities that have either been postponed or cancelled in the wake of an increasing number of Covid-19 cases in SA.

The school calendar will also be amended to make up for lost  days of schooling, with both the June and September holidays to be shortened.

Basic education minister  Angie Motshekga said on Monday that an assessment around Covid-19 had been done and the department was taking drastic steps to curb the spread of the outbreak.

Motshekga said the decision to suspend schooling from Wednesday was taken after schools were identified as among the biggest potential threats in terms of transmission.

The Council of Education Ministers (CEM) met on Monday morning to brief provincial education offices and ensure measures were put in place to mitigate the impact of the virus.

Some of the measures include:

• The closure of schools from March 18, to resume on April 14;
• Extended teaching hours to be encouraged once schools reopened. This would apply to all schools — public, independent and private;
• Implementation of a practical and comprehensive catch-up plan by every province, district, circuit and school; and
• Issuing of workbooks and worksheets to  keep children engaged in curriculum-based initiatives while on the break.

The minister said now was the time for parents also to play their part in the education of their children.

The Eastern Cape education department has put together a four-part instruction plan on the prevention and management of Covid-19, which has been signed off by basic education department director-general Mathanzima Mweli and superintendent-general Themba Kojana.

Some of these measures include:

• Cancellation of all international excursions meant to have taken place in the next two months, up to the end of May;
• All principals to advise parents with children that have scheduled trips to either stay at home or go for screening, and only return to school on medical advice; and
• All schools in the province to be prohibited from hosting or participating in domestic tours, events and excursions for any sport or cultural activity, with immediate effect. These include spelling bees; the ABC Motsepe SA schools choral eisteddfod, moot court events, athletics, assemblies and camps.

Mweli said the school calendar would be amended to make up for the loss of nine days of schooling.

“To recover the academic programme, the June holiday will be shortened by seven school days and the September holiday will be shortened by two school days.

“The coronavirus crisis will be monitored daily, and regular communication and updates will be pronounced.

“Though schools have been closed, the closure does not extend to office-based institutions which will remain open to provide services to the education sector,” Mweli said.

Several universities across SA have also suspended all academic activities.

In the Eastern Cape, all lectures, exams and events have been suspended at Nelson Mandela University, Rhodes University and the University of Fort Hare.

In a statement by Rhodes on Monday, vice-chancellor Sizwe Mabizela said all events which involved people from outside Makhanda between now and June would be postponed, cancelled or reverted as an online event, and that would include  graduation ceremonies.

NMU vice-chancellor Professor Sibongile Muthwa said the wellbeing of students and staff was the university’s priority.

“In this highly volatile time, regular updates on our response to this challenge will be communicated to the university community using the official institutional platforms, as well as the dedicated website,” Muthwa said.