Gauteng ready for resumption of academic year, assures Lesufi
Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi says the province will outline its plans for the resumption of the academic year on Thursday.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced on Tuesday that schools, which have been closed since March due to the coronavirus pandemic, will reopen in phases from June 1
Grades 7 and 12 will be the first to go back to school.
"We are receiving reports from our schools and districts in terms of readiness and we will make an announcement to parents on the bases of the reports received,” Lesufi said in Boksburg on Wednesday.
“An overriding feature on everything that we are doing as Gauteng is what we call safety first. There must be an element of safety for children, educators and also the environment.”
Mobile classrooms will be provided to assist schools which have been vandalised or those who simply do not have enough classrooms to practice social distancing.
Parents who are not comfortable with their children returning to school will also receive support from government.
"We will outline processes that need to be followed for parents who feel like their children should not come back to school,” Lesufi said.
“We are also going to meet with district officials to analyse the safety school by school and if we feel they are not ready we are not going to open that school.”
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