All schools were open on Tuesday “as far as the department of basic education is concerned” — but parents should consider their children’s safety in deciding whether to send them to school while teachers are striking.
Speaking to M&G Education on Tuesday morning — as schoolteachers joined hundreds of thousands of public-service employees on strike — basic education department spokesperson Granville Whittle said the department has teams across the country assessing the situations at schools.
Reports the department received from these teams through the day would determine what interventions if any the government will need to make at individual schools, Whittle said.
Formally, all schools are open and the department encourages parents to send their children to school. But parents must consider their safety in making those decisions, Whittle said.
The department had met the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (Fedsas) to assist at schools where they could, Whittle added.
Weekend media reports suggested that some schools would be totally without staff, leaving children without supervision and security for the day.
Contradictory messages concerning care of children during the strike had come from the government, weekend reports also suggested. On Monday afternoon, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga told Eyewitness News that parents should not send their children to school on Tuesday.
But Western Cape Education MEC Donald Grant later told the same news programme that Motshekga’s advice to him the previous day (Sunday) had been that children should be sent to school.
Meanwhile, the South African Press Association reported that at one Johannesburg primary school only 100 of the usual 700 pupils arrived for school on Tuesday because parents were afraid their children could get caught up in acts of intimidation.
“Saying he had been instructed not to speak to the media, a school principal said the children at school would be kept busy with maths and English, with the supervision of the 50% staff complement that arrived for work,” Sapa reported.
“Teachers had been instructed to keep their cellphones with them and to call emergency services should they feel threatened by striking employees,” Sapa said.
Cosatu had earlier said more than 1.3-million public servants would strike after they had rejected the government’s offer of 7% wage increase — up slightly from the 6,5% with which it opened negotiations three weeks ago.