Staff Reporter
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced all public schools will close for four weeks as COVID-19 infections in South Africa surge.
However, Grades 7 and 12 will only close for a week as the rest of the classes stay home from July 27 to 24 August.
The president said the decision to close schools was not taken lightly by the government.
He made the announcement after meeting with the cabinet and the National Coronavirus Command Council.
Ramaphosa said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga had also consulted widely with over 60 stakeholders in the sector, among them teacher unions, principal associations, parent organisations, school governing bodies, independent schools and other civil society formations.
“It is important that schools do not become sights of transmission,” the president said as he announced the schools break during his televised address to the nation this evening.
“What everyone agrees on is that the health, academic and socio-economic welfare of the learners must be our foremost concern,” he said.
“The World Health Organisation argues for a balanced consideration for the child and the disease.
“The best and safest ways to reopen schools are on the basis of low community transmissions.”
Ramaphosa also announced that the current academic calendar would be extended beyond 2020 as teacher unions had called for.
Meanwhile, he said the government’s national school nutrition programme would continue to operate throughout the break period, with parents or pupils allowed to collect food from schools.