3 300 teachers died from Covid-19 - Motshekga
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says a total of 3 300 teachers have succumbed to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.
Motshekga was tabling her department's budget vote in Parliament on Thursday afternoon.
"One of the traumas suffered by children has been to lose their parents, caregivers, and teachers to Covid-19,” she told MPs.
“The DBE’s ongoing monitoring through the PERSAL’s data shows that as of 31 December 2021, around 3 300 educators in just the public service, had succumbed to COVID-19 since 2020. This almost represents 1% of our workforce."
She said initial evidence, which suggested that half-a-million children did not return to school when they should have after lockdown, is not correct.
"The evidence we now have, and researchers agree on this, is that there was no massive worsening of the dropout patterns, compared to what we saw before the pandemic. There have been some problems, such as Grades R to 1 enrolment, being around twenty-five thousand (25 000) lower than expected in 2021, due to parents delaying the first enrolment of their children.
"According to recently released enrolment data, there has been substantial growth in enrolments in our schools, beginning already before the pandemic, in 2019; and this growth did not slow down during the pandemic. In fact, enrolments increased by half a million between 2019 and 2021. This was mainly due to fewer learners dropping out."
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