Cape Town - While schools and institutions of higher learning are expected to close this week as part of government’s measures to combat the accelerated spread of Covid-19 infections in the third wave, Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres will stay open.
On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the country will be placed on Adjusted Alert Level 4 for two weeks due to a spike in infections.
According to the Government Gazette published on Monday by the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, schools and institutions of higher education will be closed for contact classes from June 30, but ECD centres will remain open.
Department of Social Development spokesperson Esther Lewis said that ECD centres not only served as educational facilities, but also as important developmental spaces for young children during the period.
“ECD centres remaining opening serve as safe space for children whose parents have to be at work and for some are the only place where their nutritional needs are met. With ECD centres reopening last year, they constantly advised to follow guidelines that entail daily screening and regular hand-washing on arrival for both staff and children, safe play for children, and age-appropriate education of children about Covid-19,” said Lewis.
Early Years Day Care centre principal Shahnaaz Behardien said that as much as it is a health risk for teachers who need to work and earn money, while the parents do the same, it is in her financial interest for the nursery to stay open and operate.
“With levels changing, it takes a lot of planning and adjusting, however, we are lucky that most of our staff live locally and are flexible. This definitely makes things easier when times and routines have to change,” said Behardien.
SA Childcare Association chief executive Arno van der Merwe said that he welcomed the announcement because the ECD sector is not only an essential service to parents, but essential service to child.
“With ECD centres open, children not only have the opportunity to learn via play in order to build social skills, but it is also an important service for the future of the South African economy.
“SA Childcare has done a survey, because we wanted to assess what the centre looks like in terms of Covid-19 and what we have found is very interesting.”
“We asked if a school has had a positive case of a staff member, and there were only about 17% of schools that had a staff member test positive; and for those schools that had staff members testing positive, the vast majority had only one or two staff members testing positive, and 89% of them did not go to hospital.
“Then we asked how many children, and about 15% of all schools reported a child being positive at school; the same scenario – only one or two children tested positive, and then about 86% of children did not even go to hospital.
“Hence the best thing that government can do for the sector is to make sure that the ECD centres stay open, not just for the advantage of the working parents, but for the advantage of children,” said Van der Merwe.