WHEN Zinzi Lerefolo was sent home from her fee-paying girls’ school in a leafy Johannesburg suburb in March, her family set up a virtual classroom that allowed her to continue studying uninterrupted. The 13-year-old has access to the internet and her school has the means to provide online teaching during the coronavirus lockdown.

For Phuti Ngoetjana, 14, it has been a different story.

Her state school has no resources to make the leap to cyberspace, and even if it did her family could not afford the data to access lessons in the one-room brick home in the east Johannesburg township of Tembisa where she lives.

The contrast between the black girls’ education during the pandemic has played out the world over.

In South Africa, it is especially acute and sensitive.

Although elite schools that were open only to white South Africans under apartheid are now integrated, most black pupils can’t afford them, and the country has struggled to bridge huge inequalities 26 years after the fall of white minority rule.

The country remains one of the world’s most economically divided, with the top 10% of households owning 71% of the wealth, according to World Bank data from 2018.

As schools prepare to partially re-open from Monday, the educational gap risks widening, and government ministers, teachers’ unions and parents are worried.

Those institutions built under apartheid in predominantly black townships and rural areas are the least well equipped to cope with the pandemic, with poor internet access, crowded classrooms and sparse amenities.

“COVID-19 has exposed the divide,” said Lerefolo’s father Simon, now a church pastor who escaped the townships to a top university in 1994 and who was able to pay for an elite education for his daughter.

“And it’s got us thinking: what have we done, us who are privileged, to reduce this divide?”

WHEN TO RE-OPEN?

Schools were supposed to have resumed this week, but some teachers and unions argued it was not safe to do so until the government did more to ensure employees were safe from COVID-19.

Government officials have countered that a generation of school children risks losing a key part of their education, and the future opportunities it brings, even though the virus affects them far less than the sick and elderly.

In Western Cape, the opposition Democratic Alliance, which unlike the governing party is not beholden to unions, has defied orders from Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga to delay opening for the last grades of primary and secondary school.

That’s despite the province accounting for two thirds of the country’s coronavirus cases.

Western Cape education chief Debbie Schafer said that schools there had taken the necessary precautions and she would not wait for another week to start. They re-opened on June 3.

An education department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

South Africa’s education system has left millions of children without basic skills.

Literacy tests carried out by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement in 2016 found that 78% of South African pupils could not read for meaning by the age of 9 or 10, compared with 64% in Morocco and 4% in the United States.

Of 100 students who start school, 40-50 will pass their final high school exam, and 14 will go to university, Amnesty International said in a report in February.

“We still have … two South Africas living side by side,” said Nic Spaull, an education expert at Stellenbosch University in Western Cape province. “The two schooling systems have de-racialised, but you still have two systems.”

Under lockdown, these inequalities are being enlarged by disparities in digital access.

International Telecommunication Union data shows just 22% of households have a computer in South Africa, while 60% have internet access.

Since the end of apartheid, the governing African National Congress has brought electricity and piped water to millions and slashed poverty by a third.

Education has also improved: in the two decades since 1994, the number of black university graduates quadrupled to 48,600, Spaull said.

But for the poorest, the situation remains dire, which he put down in part to a failure to improve the quality of teachers – many of whom were themselves a product of apartheid education.

‘I’M NOT CONNECTED’

Zinzi Lerefolo has used the dining room in her spacious family home to attend classes held via videolink and do homework handed out using social media.

 “It wasn’t really an issue going online,” she told Reuters, taking a break in her lounge with a view of the pool outside, before positioning her phone for a virtual art class.

About 35 km (20 miles) away, Ngoetjana sat in her parents’ single room – where they rest, eat, wash clothes and dishes – trying to study. Noise from traffic and people talking outside was ceaseless.

“The teachers didn’t give us any homework during this lockdown,” she said, looking up from her maths exercises. “I haven’t learned much because I’m not connected online.”

Most black South Africans depend on cash-strapped free schools like hers.

Under the former apartheid system, they were designed to provide only limited education: their role was to prepare black children for lower-paid jobs and keep them subservient to whites.

But the all-race democracy introduced in 1994 was supposed to change that.

Whether Ngoetjana’s school resumes on Monday, when classes are meant to restart for the crucial last years of primary and secondary school, is unclear.

Teachers’ unions are adamant they will not go back until all schools are equipped with masks, hand washing facilities and sanitiser.

That is a tall order given that, according to Spaull, more than a quarter of schools don’t have running water.

Many rural schools lack bathrooms – they use outdoor pit latrines instead. Dozens of school buildings were also vandalised or burned during the lockdown.

“The consequences are huge,” said Zama Mthunzi, of the Equal Education activist group. “Learners might not end up finishing or going to university … They’re going to be left behind very badly.”

Unlike Lerefolo, the fortunes of Ngoetjana’s father, Julius, have not changed much since apartheid ended. He said in some ways his daughter’s school reminded him of his: 60 kids jammed in a classroom making learning challenging.

“Things have improved but not enough,” he said.

(Source: REUTERS)

TWELVE Wits scientists across disciplines have been nominated for NSTF-South 32 Research Awards, known as the ‘Science Oscars’, and eight are finalists. The annual National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) Awards, sponsored by South 32, recognise excellence and outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology (SET) and innovation in South Africa. They are the largest, most comprehensive and sought-after national awards of their kind in South Africa.

Previously the awards were made at a glittering gala dinner. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 awards will take place online on 30 July 2020.

The Wits scientists nominated represent schools and disciplines across the University, including: Biomedical Engineering; Geosciences; Chemical Engineering; Pharmaceutical Chemistry; Physiotherapy; Analytical Chemistry; Public Health; Microbiology; and Evolutionary Studies.

The 12 are nominated in categories including lifetime achievement; researcher and emerging researcher; management; engineering research capacity development; water research; data for research; special annual theme; and communications. 

Of the 12, eight have been short-listed as finalists. A finalist is a nominee who, in the opinion of the adjudication panel, is considered eligible for the award. This means that the nominee has made a significantly outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology (SET) and innovation in South Africa and qualifies to be considered as a potential winner.

Durrheim and Ramsay are finalists in the Lifetime Award category; Chimuka is a finalist in the Innovation Award: Corporate Organisation category; Kinnaird in the Management Award category; Rey is a finalist in two categories: Lifetime Award and the Special Annual Theme Award: Plant Health; Du Toit Lee Shong in the Emerging Researcher category; Collinson in the Data for Research category; and Henshilwood in the Communications category. 

Nominations for excellence in science, engineering and technology

Prof. Rayond Durrheim, School of Geosciences; Prof. Andrew Forbes in Physics; Michèle Ramsay, Professor of Human Genetics and Director of the Sidney Brenner Institute of Molecular Bioscience; and Prof. Chrissie Rey, in Microbiology are nominated in the Lifetime category.

Commenting on his nomination, Durrheim said: “The Earth is my laboratory – it is an awesome and beautiful planet, and we need to work even harder to keep it so.”

Forbes said, “For me, it is important to know that what you do makes a difference”, while Ramsay commented, “We did not dream thirty years ago that we would ever be able to sequence whole genomes and at an affordable price”.

Rey, who is also nominated in the 2020 Special Annual Theme Award for research and development and innovation in Plant Health, says: “I would like to thank the NSTF for the recognition of my contribution to plant pathology, in particular efforts to find solutions to combat plant virus diseases through applied biotechnology innovations.”

Prof. Michael Olawale Daramola, formerly in the School of Chemical Engineering at Wits, is nominated in the category TW Kambule and NSTF Award Researcher category and also in the Engineering Research Capacity Development Award. Daramola’s primary research focus is chemical and bioprocess engineering, focusing on nanomaterials and bioresource engineering.

Witsies nominated in the TW Kambule Emerging Researcher category include Associate Professor Lisa C du Toit in Pharmaceutical Chemistry. She is a Senior Researcher in the Wits Advanced Drug Delivery Platform Research Unit.

“As an emerging female researcher, it is my goal to proudly represent Wits in the field of Pharmaceutical Sciences. In South Africa and Africa as a whole, there is an urgent need to enhance the drug delivery and tissue engineering market,” says Du Toit.

Benita Olivier, Personal Professor and Research and Postgraduate Coordinator in the Physiotherapy Department in the School of Therapeutic Sciences and the Research Director in the Wits Institute for Sports and Health, is also nominated in this category. She says, “I am shaped through many interactions with and contributions from others who I crossed paths with. Each of us have the ability to change the world … together”.

Associate Professor Judith Kinnaird is nominated for the Management Award. Kinnaird is Director of the Economic Geology Research Unit and Co-Director of the Department of Science and Innovation Centre of Excellence for the Study of Mineral and Energy Deposits in the School of Geosciences.

“I have just tried to do my job to the best of my ability but I am delighted and honoured to be shortlisted for this award,” she says. Kinnaird was named a finalist in this category on 2 June.

Professor and Research Group Leader in Environmental Analytical Chemistry, Luke Chimuka is nominated for the NSTF Water Research Commission Award and also in the Innovation: Corporate Organisation category. “Open mindedness and being focused is an important aspect in research related activities,” says Chimuka, who is a finalist in the Innovation Award: Corporate Organisation category.

Mr Abdul-Khaaliq Mohammed, Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering is also nominated in the Innovation Award Corporate Organisation. “I am honoured to be nominated and I hope that this will somehow lead to the successful commercialisation our bionic prosthetic hand so we can assist South African amputees as soon as possible,” says Mohammed.

For their work in the field of researching public health in rural areas using the South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN), co-directors Prof. Mark Collinson and Dr Kobus Herbst are nominated for the Data for Research award.

Collinson says, “Building a national research infrastructure requires a sense of public service in the development of infrastructure and science, hence we are nominated as a team, and doing academic work that uses and advances the infrastructure, and in that sense the research focus is more personal.”

Christopher Henshilwood, Distinguished Professor and Chair of the South African Department of Science and Innovation/National Research Foundation Research Chair Initiative in Modern Human Origins, Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits is nominated for the Communication Award.

“This is a group nomination for an exhibition at the Iziko SA Museum in Cape Town showing the unique archaeological discoveries that have been made at three Middle Stone Age archaeological sites in the southern Cape,” says Henshilwood. “The exhibition, titled Origins of Early Sapiens Behaviour: Mother Africa – Welcome Home showcases more than 30 years of archaeological research.”

Dr Robin Drennan, Director: Research Development at Wits, says: “Research-focused universities, more than most organisations, rely entirely on the talent of their members to achieve great things. Thus, when 12 great Witsies are nominated as finalists in as prestigious an award programme as the NSTF, we all feel very proud. Getting to this stage is no simple matter – it represents many years, often a lifetime, of work and scholarly endeavor. We salute all the finalists and particularly those from Wits.”

(Source: Wits University News)

SECTION 27 is preparing to take Limpopo Department of Education to court over poor sanitation at the Kharivha Primary School in Venda.

Section 27 is representing the School Governing Body (SGB) of Kharivha Primary School in Ndovhada village in Limpopo, a school which is nowhere near ready to be reopened safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the school, learners and staff were forced to use unlawful pit toilets which have subsequently been demolished.

The school lacks running water on the school property, and SGB members told SECTION27 that only six disposable masks were delivered for the school’s staff and that the school only received seven 1 litre bottles of sanitizers for approximately 95 learners.

Section 27 spokesperson Julia Chaskalson confirmed in a statement that the civil society organization has written to the Department of Basic Education well as the Limpopo Department of Education (LDOE) about its concerns about the school’s readiness twice, and received no response.

The organization is demanding that a water tank, portable toilets and other necessaries be delivered to the school before it opened on June 8, failing which Section 27 will go to court to ensure that the government complied with its undertakings to ensure the safety of the schooling community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 “We have been campaigning for lawful sanitation in schools for five years and counting, since the tragic and undignified death by drowning in a collapsed pit toilet of 5 year old Michael Komape. We had hoped that the DBE would fulfil its promises to deliver safe and decent sanitation given the urgency during the COVID-19 Pandemic. We hope it still does to avoid future litigation,” said Chaskalson.

Chaskalson said the school has no portable toilets, water tanks or masks for learners.

“The DBE [Department of Basic Education] has set out the safety preconditions for the reopening of schools during the COVID-19 disaster in its Standard Operating Procedures for the Prevention, Containment and Management of COVID-19 in Schools and School Communities (SOPs),” said Chaskalson.

“Key pillars of the safety procedures therein are adequate sanitation infrastructure (including safe toilets, clean and reliable water supply and sanitiser facilities), personal protective equipment (PPE), social distancing measures, adequate orientation and screening for COVID-19. The SOPs note that these key pillars must be adhered to.”

(Compiled by Inside Education staff)

A SCHOOL in the North West Province has been forced to close its doors amid reopening preparations after a 56-year old principal tested positive for COVID-19.

This comes less than a week before schools officially reopen after the Department of Basic Education delayed the reopening by a week due to lack of readiness at some schools in the country.

The department’s spokesperson Elias Malindi said a 56-year-old school principal from the province visited a doctor who then revealed that he had signs of the novel coronavirus.

“The results confirmed the positive status on Tuesday and immediately the principal was subjected to a 14 days self-quarantine,” said Malindi.

North West education MEC Mmaphefo Matsemela said the school will not be opened until all necessary investigations have been concluded.

 “As the department we are shocked to learn about the news. We are working with the department of health who have advised us to close the school with immediate effect,” said Matsemela.

Most teacher unions remain opposed to reopening of schools.

South Africa’s major teacher unions say the Department of Basic Education’s decision to reopen schools was deeply flawed and dangerous.

(Compiled by Inside Education staff)

LUCAS LEDWABA

THE SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) wants the Department of Basic Education to provide information on all schools that are not ready to open and provide effective learning and also give reasons why that is the case.

The commission said on Tuesday it will also request for information on alternative measures instituted to ensure that learners whose schools cannot open under the COVID-19 regulations are not left behind as far as effective learning is concerned.

“The Commission will monitor schools throughout the country to ensure that effective learning takes place and that no learners are unduly disadvantaged by the inability of schools to open and provide learning,” the  SAHRC said in response to Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga’s decision to postpone resumption of schooling to June 8.

Motshekga said on Monday that the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) received three critical reports  from the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT), Rand Water and the Heads of Education Departments Committee (HEDCOM) on the state of readiness for the phased-in reopening of schools. She said based on the reports it became clear that the sector was at different levels of readiness.

“In the main, it was for this reason that the CEM determined that the sector requires more time to mop-out its state of readiness for school reopening, in order to comply with the health and safety standards on COVID-19,” Motshekga said. Grade 7 and 12 learners are expected to return to class on June 8 and teachers who have received PPEs were expected to start work on June 1.

The SAHRC said it “will not hesitate to take necessary measures within its mandate and powers, including litigation, if necessary, to ensure that learners are not unduly deprived of their right to a basic education.”

Motshekga said teachers, whose schools have already received the personal protective equipment, will be expected report for work on 01 June 2020, and prioritize the preparation of their schools to deal with the “new normal” brought about by the Corona Virus.

She also said provinces should finalise all their outstanding deliveries of PPEs to schools, and the outstanding provision of water and sanitation to the schools and that ongoing cleaning of schools should be finalised within the week of 01 June 2020.

“All teachers and support staff should be inducted and orientated for the new environment brought about by the COVID-19. In return, the teachers should induct, orientate and counsel the learners, who have already arrived at the schools, to deal with the new COVID-19 environments.”

(Compiled by Inside Education staff)

NYAKALLO TEFU

THE SOUTH African Human Rights Commission is taking legal action against the Western Cape Department of Education over its decision to go against Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s directives to reopen all schools on June 8.

SAHRC’s Andre Gaum said that the reopening of schools in the Western Cape will exclude learners in disadvantaged communities.

 Gaum said some schools in these areas are still not ready or compliant to deal with the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“According to our monitoring and our assessment and also surveys that have been done, they are about 80 percent ready. So there are also a substantial number of schools in the Western Cape that are, indeed, not ready,” he said.  

The commission has written to the department asking it to urgently ensure that it upholds the Constitution by leaving no learner behind.

The commission has also asked Western Cape MEC for Education Debbie Schafer to stick to the rules or face court action following her decision to reopen schools on Monday.

“The basis of all of this is Section 9(1) of the constitution which highlights the right to basic education and not be unfairly discriminated against,” said Gaum.

The commission also called on Motshekga to amend the directions published in the government gazette on May 29.

“At present it says schools that comply with COVID-19 rules may open and those that aren’t may not open. It should be amended to make alternative plans for learners who come from schools that cannot open,” said Gaum.

The commission is currently monitoring other provinces, said Gaum, who added that they want to make sure deliveries are taking place.

“If deliveries are not happening, we will contact the different provinces so learners can access their right to education,” he said.  

Schafer has argued that gazetted regulations, coupled with the Western Cape’s state of readiness, meant that schools in the province would open on Monday June 1.

Schafer said she will not stop children from learning unless a court of law tells her to stop.

“I am really battling to understand what the issue is. The Human Rights Commission is supposed to protect the human rights of all citizens and one of those fundamental ones is the right to basic education, and we are providing the right to education,” said Schafer.

“We are working with the national minister to do that and we are complying with the gazette but suddenly they feel that if all schools across the entire country can’t open at the same time, then they mustn’t open at all.”

(Compiled by Inside Education staff

KWAZULU Natal MEC for Education Kwazi Mshengu confirmed on Tuesday that large quantities of personal protective equipment has disappeared in the uMlazi, Pinetown and Zululand districts.

The equipment apparently disappeared en route to circuit offices and schools.

“The disappearance of these PPE makes the preparations for the reopening in schools an elusive goal. Their replacement of these PPE will cost the department millions of rand, the money of which the department does not have,” said Kwazi.

He has since directed the head of department Dr Vusumuzi Nzama to launch an investigation on the disappearance of PPE in these districts.

(Compiled by Inside Education staff)

NYAKALLO TEFU

THE WESTERN Cape Province said schools would reopen on Monday as it had already spent millions on PPE for teachers, pupils and general government staff.

The notice, issued by the Western Cape MEC for Education in the Western Cape, Debbie Schafer, has added further complexities to an already convoluted back to school plan.

Despite Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga’s late-night turn around, which effectively postponed the reopening of classrooms to Grade 7 and Grade 12 learners to Monday June 8, Schafer argued that gazetted regulations, coupled with the Western Cape’s state of readiness, meant that schools in the province would open on Monday June 1.

“We have been engaged in discussions at a national level over the weekend and we can no longer allow our schools to hover in a state of uncertainty,” said Schafer.

Schafer said the provincial education department has already spent R280 million on personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning material in preparation for the reopening of schools across the Western Cape.

She said this includes 2.4 million masks – 2 masks for each learner and WCED-employed staff member.

“We have also provided over 7 000 non-contact digital thermometers for the screening process that every learner and staff member must follow each day, and millions of litres of hand sanitiser, liquid soap, disinfectant and bleach,” she said.

“Learner transport has been arranged for tomorrow morning for those learners on the Learner Transport Scheme. Schools have also made preparations for the provision of school meals. Learners have already begun to arrive at school hostels today, and parents have made preparations to take their children to school tomorrow morning. School staff and WCED officials have been working around the clock to ensure that all plans are in place to receive those learners on time. Given these preparations, and the enormous effort put in by teachers and non-teaching staff alike, it would be unfair to delay all schools from re-opening.”

Schafer said there are also outstanding issues that need to be finalized over the coming week – including confirming a position on home schooling options – but these will not prevent the majority of Grade 7s and 12s from returning.

“Whilst we are aware of the many anxieties surrounding Covid-19, keeping schools closed indefinitely is not going to resolve them.  The South African Paediatric Association has come out in favour of the phased re-opening.  We are taking every precaution, but the longer schools remain closed, the poor will suffer the most.  The disingenuous arguments by some that all schools should open simultaneously do not hold water.  They argue that the poor will be left behind.  Well the reality is that the poor ARE being left behind now, as wealthier schools or parents have the means to continue online,” she said.

Meanwhile, the South African Human Rights Commission said on Monday it will challenge the Western Cape Education Department’s decision to open schools after Motshekga’s announcement that schools would re-open for Grades 7 and 12 next Monday, the 8th of June.

(Compiled by Inside Education staff)