Staff Reporter
The Free State Department of Education says it is yet to decide if it will employ more teachers as a result of classes being split to allow for social distancing as recommended by the government to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Education MEC Tate Makgoe would not hazard a figure when asked by The Free Stater during a media briefing at Tsoseletso Secondary School in Bloemfontein Tuesday morning whether such plans were in place.
“It’s really going to depend on the timetable,” Makgoe said during the briefing to update the media on the phased re-opening which started Monday with Grades 7 and 12.
“What’s happening now is that teachers and the principals are sitting down and re-looking the timetables to determine if they will need more teachers or not and if they can use the existing teachers or not,” he added.
Makgoe said initially the department will check if it can tap from its pool of ad hoc teachers before it considers hiring new people as that might result in an oversupply.
“Remember, we don’t just employ any teacher,” he explained.
“We employ teachers based on the requirements of a particular subject.
“We can’t just say we want a teacher for maths and just employ any teacher.
“So, we can’t give a number now. It will depend on the timetable.”
Makgoe was also confident that the proposed use of mobile classrooms in some schools would not result in overcrowding on the school grounds as no school will be allowed to have more than 50 percent of its learners in attendance at any given time.
“In terms of the standard operating procedure, we cannot have more than 50 percent of the learners of a school at one time,” he said.
“That is why the timetable has to be re-engineered so that the possibility of platooning and changing classrooms may be considered.
In the case of large schools, Makgoe said they may consider having different streams of learners coming to school on alternative days or weeks in order to minimise the numbers on school grounds.
“There must always be social distancing in schools,” he said.
“Some schools are quite big . . . with over 2 000 learners. So, we will have to do something about those schools to address even that 50 percent.”
Only two schools failed to open in the province due to reasons which the MEC said had nothing to do with their level of preparedness.
Bochabela Primary School in Bloemfontein did not open after a clerk tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
The staff member is said to have interacted with some teachers and they had to be screened and tested before they could be allowed back at work.
The teachers have since received their results which were negative, and schooling is expected to start Wednesday.
Boitumelo Primary School in Kroonstad did not resume classes yesterday because of some municipal work which interrupted water supplies and sanitation to the school.
Health MEC Montseng Tsiu told the briefing that most of the transmissions currently being recorded in the province are from local communities with none being imported from other parts of the country.
She expressed hope that this could help keep the situation under control given that schools have started re-opening and there is growing economic activity elsewhere.