Monday, 15 February 2021, marks the much anticipated first day of the 2021 Basic Education academic year. This is as all 1583 schools in the North West Province open their gates to pupils after months of school closures due to COVID19 related regulations.

According to the Department of Education in the North West Province, schools and teachers are ready to welcome back pupils who will start trickling in from today. The department seems to have all hands on deck with regards to ensuring that schools open with out any hindrances. They are on top of issues such as the recruitment of teachers to replace those that resigned or retired at the end of the 2020 academic year, as well as those that lost their lives to COVID-19 related complications. According to the Provincial Department’s spokesperson, Elias Malindi, “To mitigate the challenge we will recruit some of the provinces Funza Lushaka bursars while temporary teachers will also assist fill the gaps.”

The Department has also confirmed that sufficient Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has been been procured ahead of schools reopening.”All 1 583 schools are prepared to receive learners with screeners readily available as well as masks and sanitizers for hygienic purposes.” Said Malindi.

The National School Nutrition Program is also said to be ready to cater for the 741 522 learners it provides food for on school premises on a daily basis. The department says monies were deposited in schools’ coffers in December 2020 for procurement of protective clothing and aprons as well as detergents to this effect.

Extra desks and mobile classes have been procured, all this in an effort by the department to observe social distancing.

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Recovering time that has been lost due to the late re-opening of schools is also a priority that the provincial department is looking into. “The Department [North West education] has plans in place to recover lost teaching and learning since January. These plans include extra classes, Dial-a-tutor program, radio lessons as well as special camps taking into consideration Covid-19 protocols to name but a few.” Says Malindi.

The MEC of Education in the North West Province, Mmaphefo Matsemela will, on Tuesday, 16 February 2021, be concluding her monitoring of the total compliance as schools reopen. She is expected to be in the Dr. Ruth S. Mompati District, doing rounds at Broedersput Primary School, Temoso Special School and Huhudi Secondary School. This visit by the MEC comes at the back of three weeks, since the start of the phasing-in of the reopening of schools for the year 2021. School Management Teams were the first stakeholders to return on Monday, 25 January 2021; and teachers have been back at work for two weeks now, since Monday, 01 February 2021.

The Vryburg Independent Post (The VIP) Team engaged The Congress of South African Students (COSAS) in the North West Province to find out what their take is as far the first day of school reopening and readiness is concern, and according to Thabo Moroka, Chairperson of COSAS in the province, the learner’s movement has been crisscrossing the lengths and breaths of the province in an effort to make sure and confirm schools readiness to welcome learners today. Moroka says Dr. Ruth S. Mompati District as well as the other districts are seemingly ready to commence with the 2021 academic year. He did however point out that he is, this morning , busy looking into issues pertaining to challenges of admissions and placements of some learners in the province. This is an issue that The VIP Team will also monitor during the course of week. To this effect, the Basic Education Department Minister, Angie Motshekga, did mention in her remarks about schools readiness, on Sunday, 14 February 2021, that the issue of placement is one that they are looking in to as a matter of urgency. This is as an identified 16 117 learners across all provinces are yet to be placed in various school.

-The VIP Team

-Education NW

-COSAS