The Democratic Alliance is calling on the Department of Basic Education to do away with the rotational learning system. The system was implemented in 2020 to curb the spread of the Coronavirus in schools but the party says it could have negative long term consequences.
The party's Baxolile Nodada says that there should be more effort towards ensuring that more teachers are vaccinated.
According to Nodada, the party conducted oversight visits in schools in Mpumalanga and found that 95% of the teachers were vaccinated.
He adds that schools have already incurred a lot of learning losses under the rotational learning system and these losses are more prevalent in public schools.
The reality of the situation is that school learners have lost over 40% of their learning and teaching time. Worst of all, the no fee-paying schools, which we all know are in poor areas have lost between 50 and 75% of their learning and teaching time.
The party representative also points out that keeping the system in place will worsen the country’s growing school dropout rate which soared during the peak of the hard lockdown.
The party has also written to President Cyril Ramaphosa in an effort to engage the Minister of Basic Education as well as the Minister of Cooperative Governance to consider doing away with the system.
Nodada also says that they may consider court action over their engagements to receive a response.
