This is according to Minister Angie Motshekga during a media briefing today. 

However, the decision to reopen schools or not now sits squarely on the shoulders of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is set to address the nation on Sunday afternoon on the progress made by the government in combating the spread of Covid-19 amidst the third wave. 

Motshekga says her department has held countless consultative sessions to deliberate on the reopening of schools with the provincial departments, where they discussed the state of readiness of schools and the vaccination of teachers across the country.

Meanwhile, the Free State MEC of Education, Tate Makgoe, has confirmed on Twitter that the province is ready to reopen schools on Monday.

“We can report that when we spoke to the public last time we said we had made a request for 582 000 jabs from the Department of Health and can report that we have used 517 000 of those jabs, which gives an 89% of vaccination success rate. And we had more than 30 000 teachers who had tested positive for Covid-19 and as a result, they couldn’t be vaccinated whilst some cited medical and religious reasons,” she adds.

Motshekga announced that according to an analysis by professor Martin Gustafsson from the department, it was found that between March 2020 and February 2021 the department lost almost 1 678 educators. 

Education was amongst sectors that were heavily affected by the rapid spread of Covid-19 with teachers and learners mostly affected. 

The Northern Cape was one of the provinces that were hard hit by the third wave. This, as 29 schools were closed from the 1st of June 2021 for disinfection and to allow for isolation of those who tested positive for Covid-19.

OFM News