grade 10 schools learners WCED

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WCED calls for schools to return to normal, scrapping of the one-metre rule

‘Depriving our children of the opportunity to attend school full-time in the current circumstances is no longer justified,’ said Debbie Schafer.

grade 10 schools learners WCED

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The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) called for the end of rotational learning and the one-metre social distancing requirement ahead of the reopening of coastal schools next week. This comes after Minister of Education Angie Motshekga said there are no plans in place to change the pandemic rules for schools.

MOST PRIMARY SCHOOLS CANNOT KEEP UP WITH CURRENT REQUIREMENTS

Provincial education MEC Debbie Schafer, said on Thursday, 13 January, that there has been no change to the Directions issued by the national department of education – in terms of the Disaster Management Regulations – except for the number of spectators allowed at school sports venues.

Schafer said Motshekga stated in July 2021 that all primary schools should go back to normal attendance and follow a risk-adjusted approach depending on the conditions of the pandemic but this has not happened.

“Part of the reason is that the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Minister Dlamini Zuma, promulgated a regulation on 30 July 2021 stating that the social distancing measure in primary schools is ‘reduced to one metre’. By specifying one metre, schools may not legally ignore that,” said the MEC.

Schafer added that only about 12 percent of primary schools can comply with the one-metre rule, which means 88 percent of primary schools are operating on a rotational basis.

WCED WANTS ROTATIONAL LEARNING TO END

The WCED pointed to “strong and mounting evidence” that suggests that the learning losses suffered by pupils affected by the pandemic are devastating and will affect them for years to come.

Nic Spaull, an education specialist from Stellenbosch University, said – based on projections – the average Grade 3 child in June 2021 has the same knowledge as the average Grade 2 learner of 2019 because of rotational learning, according to the WCED.

“According to the National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (CRAM) published in May 2021, in 2020, South African primary school children in no-fee schools have learnt 50-75% less than what they normally learn. In 2021, there continued to be significant teaching time losses, as a result of rotational timetables,” said Schafer.

The department is also concerned about learners not being able to access feeding schemes and that rotational learning is contributing to a higher dropout rate.

 “Depriving our children of the opportunity to attend school full-time in the current circumstances is no longer justified, and in order to avoid a generational catastrophe, we call on the DBE and Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to make the necessary changes to the Regulations and Directions to ensure that we can start to make up the devastating losses that have already been incurred, and which will take years to remedy,” said Schafer.

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