The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA) welcomes the decision of the Cabinet to have all schools resume full-time learning.
For a long time, the union had been requesting the return of all learners on a daily basis to ensure that no more learning time is lost.
To accommodate overcrowding experienced at many schools, Cabinet has decided to relax the 1-meter social distancing rule at schools.
Even though the 1-meter rule is no longer required at schools, Cabinet requests that schools continue to adhere to the other important Covid-19 prevention measures. Learners and staff are required to wear a mask and sanitize their hands frequently to mitigate the spread of the virus.
NAPTOSA reminds the Department that the issue of overcrowded schools should be addressed.
“The Department has already missed an opportunity during the pandemic period to tackle this grave problem. If the Department was able, in a short space of time at the start of the pandemic, to provide water infrastructure (albeit water tanks in many instances) to schools that did not have these facilities, they surely could have done something during the last 2 years to alleviate the overcrowding of schools,” said the union.
The union suggests that a constructive plan be drawn up by the Basic Education Department to address the issue.
NAPTOSA states that they can not afford to “return to a situation where schooling is disrupted due to a resurgence of infections because of overcrowding in schools and the non-adherence to the Covid protocols”.
The disruptions in learning the past two years have had a negative impact on school attendance. Therefore, it is important that schooling returns to the way it was before the pandemic.
While NAPTOSA supports catch-up programmes, they believe it needs to be balanced with the prevention of teacher burnout. In many instances, unrealistic expectations have been placed on teachers with regards to catch-up programmes, which is not fair on them.
