Teacher vaccinations rolled out this week as schools remain open, confirms Motshekga

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga made the announcement on Saturday. 

“All PERSAL staff as of April 2021 in DBE; educators, administrators, and support staff at all public schools; irrespective of their age including School Governing Body appointed teachers and those teachers employed by independent schools registered in terms of the South African Schools Act," she said. 

"We have 582 00 persons to be vaccinated over 10 to 14 days, weekdays and weekends; or 7 to 10 days if it is weekdays only.”

The department will follow a strict registration process. No on-site registration will be allowed, only those who are registered on the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS) will be vaccinated. 

Those who contracted Covid-19 in the past 30 days, who were vaccinated using another vaccine under the Sisonke Program, or had the flu vaccine in the past 14 days, will not qualify for this rollout. 

The department’s acting director-general Dr Granville Whittle said the Health Department has confirmed it will release 300 000 doses on Sunday.

These vaccines are currently being tested and will be sent to different provinces from Sunday for administration on Wednesday.

Whittle said the vaccines will expire in August so the department aims to ensure that the jabs are administered before the expiry date.

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On school closures

Motshekga said experts are in agreement that there is no need to close all schools. 

"In the case of the Basic Education sector, this means that we need to do all that we can to prevent a potential academic disaster.  At all times, we follow the advice of public health experts, who are supporting us in the management of the impact of Covid-19. We believe that schools must remain open and in saying so we are not insensitive to the concerns raised about the rising infections.

"The position is that we continue to handle Covid cases according to the differentiated strategy, on a province by province, school-by-school basis. While there are disruptions in the sector, the majority of our schools remain fairly stable," she added.

Motshekga confirmed it is all systems go for the return of primary school pupils for the third term on July 26.

"We gave ourselves two months to prepare for this mammoth task. At the moment, provinces are at various stages of readiness in terms of the return of all primary school learners to school on a daily basis.

“We are aware that there are many variables that will make this task a success. The DBE is currently holding one-on-one sessions with each provincial education department to check on their state of readiness.”