‘Some issues to resolve’, but union welcomes return of daily schooling
The National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) believes the full-time return of pupils is necessary to engender a culture of school attendance.
Cabinet announced on Monday that all primary, secondary and special schools will return to daily attendance.
Pupils have been on rotation learning since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020.
The 1-meter social distancing rule has also been removed.
Naptosa’s Basil Manuel says there are still some issues to be resolved.
“Naptosa is welcoming the decision, but not that we have forgotten about the overcrowded schools. All the unions were consulted, and we will be meeting with the minister again tomorrow to plan the organise return to schools.
“But at the same time we are very much aware that we can’t keep our children out any longer. Whilst we are concerned about overcrowded schools, we also want a plan of how we are going to address that issue going forward.
“For us, the biggest issue is getting back the culture of school attendance that children have lost, and to address the backlog and we know that there are fears amongst the parents, amongst teachers themselves.”
Manuel wants government to begin a massive vaccination drive among pupils.
“The only thing we can really do is a massive campaign to encourage as many of our parents to get their children to vaccinate, as well as to encourage those teachers who are not vaccinated. Parents need to realise that with all the children back at school with much more numbers, they got to step up and keep their children as safe as possible.”
ALSO READ
