A number of universities had publicly announced that the mandatory vaccination policy would be in effect at the start of the academic year, as learning starts soon.
Experts have emphasized that we ought to be prepared as a country whatever may come our way.
In an ENCA live interview, Higher Health CEO Prof. Ramneek Ahluwalia said:
The fact that the last two years we had to move 70% of our system online and 50% of our system in contact learning, which is not what the parents, next graduates, and the total student community will want. This is not good for our economic skills-building system because practical courses need quite a practical onsite.
Ahluwalia further explained that vaccination will give hope as a shift to higher contact learning to lower online learning is necessary.
Experts believe this will help minimize severity and hospitalization should more and more students vaccinate against the virus.
Higher Health said that it has seen higher outbreaks among young people, hence the organisation is promoting that the youth be vaccinated before entering the higher education system for this academic year.
Higher Health CEO has explained that the aim is not to introduce a policy into the system but rather to get more and more people vaccinated.
Lastly, Ahluwalia said that student organisation, South African Union of Students (SAUS) will agree that the fact that Higher Health has to continue with the movement, as they believe in vaccinating everyone, and that the way to do this it is to promote vaccination.
The South African Union of Students is anti-forced vaccination of students, for this reason, the student organisation has threatened to fight at all costs should vaccinations be forced on students.
