Covid-19: DA calls for urgent PC on DoE preparations ahead of 350 000 KZN learners returning to school
1 May 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will today write to KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Education portfolio committee Chairperson, Jomo Sibiya, to request that members be urgently briefed by the province’s Education Department on its preparations for the re-opening of schools. This as educators in the province are set to return on 18 May, followed by an estimated 350 000 learners in Grades 12 and seven at the beginning of June.
This week, the national Education portfolio committee was briefed on arrangements. The DA expects that the same should be done in KZN before learning resumes for these two Grades later this month. While this was due to have taken place during an on-line committee meeting this past Tuesday, regrettably, this was postponed.
Even before the devastating effects of Covid-19 made themselves known, the KZN Department of Education (DoE), under MEC Kwazi Mshengu, had numerous challenges to surmount. The pandemic has only made matters much worse and it is critical that the committee is advised on how the Department is planning to deal with;
· Overcrowding - with some 150 000 Grade 12's and around 200 000 Grade 7's many of KZN’s schools are grossly overcrowded. In some schools there are as many as 114 learners stuffed into a single classroom. This also poses a challenge to the regulations limiting gatherings, opening up the space for other legal challenges