“The rate of infections has nothing to do with life going on and the lives of children have to continue.”
Those were the words of Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga addressing the media at Letlhabile North West.
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The minister was visiting two schools in the area Eletsa and Tshepagalang Secondary School to monitor the return of grade 12 learners to schools.
She said every morning she visits one school in each province.
“This time I decided that I should come back to North West just to relook and I don’t feel there isn’t much difference in terms of the turnout of learners even the principal says so. The last school we went to when they went to break, they had 185 pupils and recorded 185 pupils,” she said.
She said one of the biggest concerns she has is about dropouts.
“Normally kids who come from vulnerable environments if they drop out it is difficult to get them back so the whole thing is to keep them in schools,” she said.
She said schools got accustomed to how to keep pupils safe.
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“The biggest fear which I did request is that if there is a child who does not come back they should try and encourage the child to come back,” she said.
Motshekga said the pupils will be taught 70% of what they were supposed to learn.
“We have done it National to trim the curriculum and take it over next year. So it’s going to finish in December with 70% work done but we are not going to dump the 30% that we have not done but we will factor it in 2021,” she said.
She said they didn’t take a break only because of health matters.
“When we took the break there were a number of reasons, the Health department said three weeks will do but, on our part, I met with principals and they said they just need a week because this new normal has not been easy for them to adjust,”
“Schools are good for children, they are better off in schools than anywhere else,” she said.
