The provincial Education spokesperson, Geoffrey van der Merwe, says the department is making steady progress in terms of the provincial vaccination roll-out to educators and support staff at schools. 

Van der Merwe says, regardless of schools that will go on early recess, the vaccination programme will continue to give the province a headstart at the beginning of the new term. Van der Merwe says presently, the Northern Cape has 10 schools closed due to Covid-19 infections. He says during the past week the Northern Cape recorded 175 new cases, of which 32 are educators and support staff, as well as 135 learners.

“Although the initial phase of vaccinations was earmarked for those aged 48 and above, we have dropped the age restrictions in order to ramp up our vaccinations. The vaccination is voluntary, but we want to sincerely urge our educators to take the vaccine and overcome possible hesitancy, as this is currently the best chance we have to curb the spread of Covid-19. We call on all school communities to work with us to curb the spread of the virus in our schools, by ensuring that you vaccinate,” Van der Merwe says.

“This programme is aimed to safeguard the lives of our educators and support staff at schools. This pandemic has had a huge negative impact on the learning and teaching environment in schools and our recovery plan requires educators and support staff to be at schools on a daily basis,” Van der Merwe says. In a statement, the Department of Education says that they are confident that the vaccination programme will contribute immensely to create a conducive and more stable teaching and learning environment during these difficult times. “We trust that more educators and staff will choose the route of vaccination,” Van der Merwe says.

OFM News/Blaine Jones