Sadtu demands schools close now

Durban - The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has called for the immediate closure of schools until the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic has subsided, saying there is “pandemonium” and little learning taking place due to the surge in new infections sweeping the country.

Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said at a media briefing yesterday that its national executive committee (NEC) had decided to demand the “immediate closure” of schools but was not calling for teachers to stay home “today or tomorrow” as it would first ask Basic Education minister Angie Motshekga to make an official announcement to suspend classes.

The Public Servants Association (PSA) also called for the closure of schools.

The Council of Education Ministers (CEM) said yesterday that government was extremely concerned about teachers, principals and non-teaching staff who used any platform to attack government for going back to work.

“CEM has resolved to take legal action against all individuals and groups that continue to disrupt schooling. We would like to emphasise the fact that the reopening and closure of schools is a legislative responsibility accorded to national and provincial authorities only. Groups and individuals who are not empowered by law do not have the authority to close schools.”

CEM said it noted Sadtu’s resolution in which they called for the closure of schools.

It said the decision on whether schools would be closed or not, would be taken by Cabinet.

Maluleke said the union would abide by the law and only embark on industrial action or take the matter to court as a last resort - if the department refused to close schools until the peak of the pandemic had subsided.

“The pandemic has led to pandemonium in the education sector and this can be linked to the lacklustre leadership that we have been experiencing from the Department of Education at various levels,” Maluleke said.

“If the minister is not going to agree, the NEC has agreed to come up with a programme of action,” he said.

“With the lockdown we may not be able to take to the streets, but there are other effective measures we can use before going to court. As teachers we know what strong measures we can use to protect the lives of pupils, teachers and the community.”

Maluleke said there was “little effective learning and teaching taking place” due to high pupil absenteeism and there were no substitute teachers to replace those who were sick or had gone into isolation or quarantine.

He said the decision to open schools had been based on the experience of Australia and Italy where pupils had not been infecting each other.

“Our situation has provided another side of the virus where so many pupils have been infected and seven have lost their lives. This compelled us to request a meeting with the minister. We call on her to use the peak period to provide answers to teachers and come up with new strategies to curb the spread and save lives,” he said.

The PSA said in a statement yesterday that it had written to President Cyril Ramaphosa, urging him to close schools with immediate effect.

“We highlighted the fact that teachers have already succumbed to the virus, many principals and support staff are infected and experience severe symptoms. With more grades returning to the schooling system and the current infection rate increasing steeply, more educators and support staff will run the risk of being infected,” the PSA said.

“The plan to continue with the academic year fails to make sense, considering that the higher education sector has already amended its current academic year to only conclude in March 2021.

“With the new student intake

only taking place from March 2021,

the Department of Basic Education

effectively has leeway until early 2021 to conclude the academic year.”

Education analyst Professor Jonathan Jansen of Stellenbosch University, who wrote an open letter to the Department of Education suggesting Motshekga “declare the normal school year over”, said it was “callous” of the department to insist that schools, ill-equipped to handle the crisis, remain open during the peak of the pandemic.

Jansen said teachers regularly wrote to him complaining about challenges, such as not having water, and now they had written to him sharing their fears about the virus. He said Motshekga’s grandchildren were clearly not in crowded township schools.

“There is no convincing data that children are vectors of the disease but imagine a kid coming home to a vulnerable family where there is a grandmother and an uncle? I just don’t get it, it’s so simple. Human life is so much more important,” Jansen said.

“I lost a year because of the riots of 1976. It’s not that the whole world will come to an end because we have lost half an academic year. Teachers are incredibly stressed. They say we must appear to be normal and to not be afraid when our principal is on a ventilator.

“They see devastation all around them but they must appear to be normal,” Jansen said.

Jansen said poor people did not have options as they would send their children to school where they felt they would be safe and have a meal.

Education Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga responded to Jansen by outlining its rationale for keeping schools open in a letter tweeted

yesterday.

He wrote that Jansen had painted Motshekga as a “dictator” in the eyes of people sympathetic to his viewpoint.

“These sympathies are bought by fearmongering tactics that he so cunningly deploys. To drive his point into the trembling hearts of a public seized with uncertainty over a virus that morphs daily and evades medical science, he throws in a salvo: ‘Teachers have died, principals have been on ventilators. Children have been infected. Non-teaching staff have become seriously ill.’ These are words employed by a crafty wordsmith to drive home a point that seeks to turn public sentiment against a hard-working minister committed to finding effective and all-encompassing solutions to not only salvage the academic year, which is not a crime, by the way, but to also keep access open for the poorest of the poor in far-flung communities,” he wrote.

Mhlanga pointed Jansen to academics with divergent views such as Stellenbosch University’s economics department Professor Martin Gustafsson and senior researcher at the unversity’s research of socio economic policy, which specialises in education policy and comparative education.

“We also would encourage Professor Jansen to listen to the findings of Unesco, on the negative impact an extended school lockdown potentially has on the prospects of learners in poor communities. In their recent report on Adverse Consequences of School Closures, Unesco explains that school closures carry high social and economic costs for people across communities,” Mhlanga wrote.

“Their impact however is particularly severe for the most vulnerable and marginalised boys and girls and their families. The resulting disruptions exacerbate already existing disparities within the education system but also in other aspects of their lives.”

The DA said the call to close schools was reckless and a deliberate attempt to disrupt the completion of the academic year. “Those who are advocating for schools to close clearly have no understanding of the damage it will cause to the academic progress of learners, especially those in poorer communities,” the party said in a statement.