Cape Town - The Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga is expected to meet with the South African Human Rights Commission soon to discuss the issue of the schooling year for 2022, following pleas for a full-time roster.
Educational experts are calling for the school calendar to return to the full-time schedule instead of the rotational roster since the pandemic began.
They said the new generation, especially those living in less-resourced communities, were being disadvantaged and that it would affect their future academically.
DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said Minister Motshekga is currently away on a business trip and would be meeting soon with the commission.
“The South African Human Rights Commission has expressed itself on this matter. The Minister is presently on a working trip overseas, and upon her return, she will meet with the commission as requested and then process the matter internally in the sector before making an announcement. At the moment, provincial education departments and schools are seized with final-year examinations. The process to collect information and preparations for the 2022 school year are still under way.”
WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said they hoped there would be changes regarding the 2022 school calendar.
“We are hoping there will be some changes to the national directions to allow for increased access, but it is dependent on the 1m social distancing rule being amended.
“While our schools are doing their best to ensure that learners have resources to work on during their days at home on rotation, we are well aware that this is not as effective as having them sitting in class – engaged, stimulated and supervised.”
Vanessa Le Roux of Parents for Equal Education said they had received feedback from parents calling for the rotational roster to continue.
“The health department predicts that the fourth wave will reach us late December, so at this point, we feel that the education department must wait and see what comes with this fourth wave. They had over a year since our first lockdown. They should have also found alternative ways by now. They knew that this virus would not disappear any time soon, then they should have started planning around it. But, at this point, we must wait and see how this wave is going to affect us, and not prematurely think about going back to full time.”
Professor Kobus Maree from the department of educational psychology at the University of Pretoria said a full-time roster would equip children from all walks of life with better education and future.
He said the rotational roster had disadvantaged children who did not have access to resources.
“We want to see what is in the best interest of the learners. Learners should be attending school full-time. The medical fraternity and the education fraternity need to sit down and find out whether steps can be taken, where all the measures will allow learners to attend school every day.
SAHRC commisinoer Advocate Andre Guam said the Commission was calling for a full-time school year for 2022.
“We want a meeting with Basic Education,” he said. “Primary schools should go back to normal and stop the rotation. Teachers, mainly most have been vaccinated and there is a lower risk of infection in that age group. Even high schools should be looked at as children at age 12 can be vaccinated now. And high schools should be moving into that direction. The problem with rotation is missing half of the teaching day, and it affects the nutrition and cognitive development of the child.”