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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga at a company disinfectant delivery in Pretoria.
- All grades have returned to school after being absent since March due to Covid-19.
- Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said last week that she was focused on stabilizing the system and that it should be resolved in two weeks.
- Motshekga said the department will soon be able to identify where additional teachers are needed.
The basic education department says it will use the next two weeks to monitor where additional teachers need to be hired, as all grades have returned to schools.
Starting Monday, grades 5 and 8, as well as grades 4 and 5 in schools for students with severe intellectual disabilities, returned to the classroom.
Some grades returned for the first time since schools had to close their doors in March due to Covid-19.
Grades 7 and 12 returned on June 8, but took another hiatus starting on July 27, due to concerns about the increase in cases.
But concerns persisted, with unions such as the National Organization of National Professional Teachers of South Africa (Naptosa) saying that schools were still experiencing challenges with teachers and the replacements of those who have since had to leave the system due to comorbidities and others who work from home.
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During an Onderstepoort Biological Products school disinfectant donation ceremony in Pretoria on Monday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said the system had been working well and that they would only now begin to pay attention to where there was a need for additional teachers.
The minister also received disinfectants from Sasol Energy.
With grades R, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, and 11 returned on August 24, Motshekga said his focus last week had been to stabilize the system and get students used to the new standard of attending dates based on variable schedules.
She said scheduling the teachers’ schedules had been another challenge, adding that she hoped everything would go according to plan by the end of the week.
Motshekga said the department now has a clear understanding of teachers who now work from home and schools that can no longer reopen.
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“What we have told the unions, [is that] employs when he has seen the need. So we only receive [all] students this week, we are scheduling differently.
“Only after two weeks will the need clearly emerge, because we do not want to go overload the system and start using it,” the minister said.
Motshekga said that because the department did not have an additional budget, it had to be cautious about hiring additional teachers.
The department would select qualified teachers from a database if necessary.
“We are still working to say ‘if you are a teacher, you work from home, what does it mean’? So even when we bring [in a] replacement, you do the preparations, you make the marks; the young people that we are bringing … are going to work under her supervision, they are going to do the following. “
Motshekga said the department informed the National Treasury that it was unlikely they would be able to cope with their current budget and would require additional funds.
