Schools In Rural Areas Are Going To Battle During The Coronavirus Pandemic.
I watched the Department of Education’s address today with regard to the plan going forward to re-open schools during the coronavirus pandemic. Each of the chairpersons from the various districts has posed interesting questions, after the plan was presented. These questions have been quite heart-wrenching to hear, we don’t really realise what conditions people are living in and the extent of the poverty gap in our country.
What has scared me the most, and it’s something I’ve been aware of but when so many people highlight it in one conversation it makes it that more scary and something we truly need to address in our country.
The following concerns were raised during the post-presentation discussion
- Will each student be given one desk per child?
- How will the schools manage when classes are at least 40 students per class in size?
- What will happen to students that are involved with feeding schemes?
- How will child minding work for students that require care after school, whilst their parents are still at work?
- Infrastructure in the rural areas does not meet the social distancing requirements, how will this be addressed and resolved?
- How will public transportation be monitored for the students?
- How will feeding schemes work, when there are so many students and how will social distancing be implemented during students being fed?
- Some schools still do not have books, will this be resolved prior to schools re-opening?
- Is it too short notice for the schools to prepare for re-opening in order to follow all of the guidelines for social distancing?
- Who is going to monitor is schools are complying to the rules?
- How often will screening be done?
- Will teachers be expected to do screening? Won’t this pose a health problem and put the teachers at risk?
- What is the department’s plan for schools that have been vandalised? Will these schools be ready for students and teachers to return to?
- What will happen to the school hostels?
- There are some parents that are unable to pay school fees at this time, will the government be able to assist so that teachers don’t lose their jobs?
The difference
I work for a private school. I keep hearing these questions being posed from the various regions, and we don’t have concerns like the above. Many of these issues were addressed in our school prior to the lockdown — hand sanitiser was put up in every classroom, our classroom sizes are no more than 25 students per class, students can sit one metre apart. Social distancing isn’t a problem for private schools. Social distancing is something we can easily adhere to in our school environment.
The people that are going to suffer the most are the people that live in the rural communities. There basic needs aren’t being met, and because their basic needs aren’t being met education is not a priority on their list when they’re trying to survive.
It’s so sad to think that the poverty gap in our country is so big and with the lockdown for the coronavirus that gap is just going to get bigger. Social distancing is going to be impossible to adhere to in our rural areas, and opening schools as soon as the 6 May 2020 doesn’t seem like the greatest idea, considering that the statisticians are expecting for the spike of the coronavirus to be in September.
I hope that in the time to come, there will be less corruption and more funding of the various sectors in our country. That our education system can be uplifted and better taken care of. Our country has so much to offer, all it needs it a good leader and someone to lead it in the right direction.
“Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth…these are one and the same fight.” — Ban Ki-moon
