14th July, 2020
Two teachers’ unions in South Africa have called for the closure of all schools as COVID-19 cases escalated in the country.
Teachers and pupils have been affected.
The biggest union, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) was the first to make the call on Tuesday, after its national executive committee meeting.
The union’s secretary general Mugwena Maluleke said its NEC resolved that schools close until the end of the peak.
Maluleke said evidence on the ground showed that there was no effective teaching and learning at schools during the current conditions.
The decision of the national executive to call for the school to close for the period was, among others, informed by the peak, the winter season, which was also impacting the surge, the union said.
“Science evolution” also guided the union’s decision, Maluleke added.
He said while scientific data at first had indicated that children were not susceptible to contracting the virus, this had not been the case at schools.
The union said it had written a letter to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and expected to engage with her and present a plan of what should happen while schools were closed.
It said another development that compelled its leadership to request a meeting with Motshekga was the airborne nature of the virus, which requires new ways of dealing with closed environments, adding that it was not possible to open windows in classrooms during winter.
The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), the second biggest teachers union after SADTU, also called for schools to be closed until after the peak of the coronavirus, when the curve begins to flatten.
In a statement on Tuesday night, the executive director of Naptosa, Basil Manuel, said this resolution was taken at its national standing committee meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
Manuel said the decision to call for the closure of schools was — in part — influenced by reflecting on the changing science in terms of the various guidelines, as well as the deteriorating mental health of teachers.