Covid-19 lockdown sees half a million more pupils miss school
A NIDS-CRAM survey has found that approximately 500 000 pupils between grades 1 and 12 have dropped out of school due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
Wave five of the NIDS-CRAM survey was released on Thursday morning with a sampling size of 5862 participants.
“To put into perspective, given that there were approximately 12 million children in grades 1 - 12 in South Africa, and comparing to household and learner attendance patterns of GHS, under conservative assumptions one can say that 650 000 to 750 000 children aged 7 to 17 years old were here not attending school by May 2021," said the Department of Basic Education’s Nompumelelo Mohohlwane.
“This represents an increase in the number of absent learners of approximately 400 000 - 500 000 when compared to normal times."
Mohohlwane added that the lowest return was recorded in the Free State and the Eastern Cape.
"Our overall attendance through the pandemic has changed from 98% to 94%. We see the lowest return in the Free State at 87% followed by the Eastern Cape at 92%."
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The Basic Education schooling year has not been spared from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NIDS-CRAM has estimated that approximately 196 days of schooling in 2020, have been lost as a result of the pandemic.
However, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel for the department.
The vaccination of teachers has gotten off to a good start with approximately 400 000 educators being vaccinated by Wednesday.
More school supporting staff are also expected to be inoculated over the next few days, with the department aiming for just under 800 000 staff members.
