Motshekga to appeal for narrowing of social distancing at primary schools
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga plans to table a report to narrow social distancing at schools to half a metre.
She was speaking at the Kabelo Primary school in Ekurhuleni on Tuesday.
Motshekga visited another primary school in the area to monitor their back-to-school programme.
“What we have as a legal position which is gazetted is a reduction from 1.5 meters social distancing for learners to 1 meter. I have an advisory from the ministerial advisory committee which says for small kids we can still do 0.5 meter.
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“There is an NCC (National Coronavirus Command Council) meeting where I will table the report which says in primary schools we are told we can 0.5 meter. It’s not yet a legal government position, we are negotiating for it.”
Some schools across the country are struggling with accommodating all learners at 100% capacity citing lack of space.
The deputy chair of the school governing body Carol Zuma said the school is also struggling.
“Even in our school it’s impossible to accommodate all the learners. Yesterday we had a large number of kids and the grade 7s were the worst. We couldn’t even accommodate them all.”
She said like other schools they have decided to do a rotational timetable, which is a challenge because parents drop off kids on the day they are not supposed to be at school.
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“It gets confusing and we cannot turn back a child when they are already at school” she added
Motshekga said while she was happy with the progress the schools are making, once they have legalised the 0.5 meter social distancing in classes it will give some relief to primary schools.
