REDBEARD

SATURDAY 9 MAY 2020

SCHOOLS ARE MADE FOR THINKING,

I THINK
CAPE TOWN – Imagine trusting the government even dare touch anyone or congregate beyond a
to educate your child but not being able to figure pair, we are selfish, immoral, society-hating killers.
out a plan to educate them.
No need to imagine, this scenario is playing out
before our very eyes, in real time. Yes, even though
you have been burdened by the very government,
which you very eagerly hand your hard-earned
taxes to, to do their job and by the way, if your
children are in a so-called privileged school, you
better continue paying your school fees. Shouldn’t
you now be paid by the government to teach your
own kids?
Nevertheless, tax lesson on another day. So, after
six weeks of lockdown, we have no certainty of
how or when to end this soul-sucking experience.
One of the major concerns during this state-
imposed house arrest, is education, more precisely,
the shutting down and re-opening of schools.
Okay, so as with everything in life, shutting down Well, the smart hats in the NCCC (National
anything from an authoritarian position is easy, Coronavirus Command Council, boy, we love our
simply tell the people they’ll be imprisoned if they abbreviations…) have come up with a plan, or have
continue with their evil activity of allowing their they? Even they are not sure, anymore. They have
toddler to accidentally wander onto the beach. Step backtracked on their statements more times than a
one accomplished. The question, however, that a grade 7 boy in an Afrikaans school caught with
thinking man needs answered, is how to re-open cigarettes in his school trousers.
these activities.
If there’s one thing that we do know now, for a fact,
This question seemed to have baffled our education is that our education minister, Angie Motshekga,
minister and leaders. What a surprise! Given the with her R2m salary, haven’t had a re-entry plan
fact that COVID19 cases are on the rise and we are when lockdown was instituted and still doesn’t.
not allowed to congregate even as couples outside
We can all agree that the initial three week
of our homes, how will these forward thinkers
lockdown was considered a sensible thing to do, no
justify cramming anything from 30 to 80 students
arguments there. However, after six weeks of no
back into a single classroom, especially after the
school and no apparent plan on which educators,
fear of God has been instilled in us that, should we
teachers’ unions, parents and the NCCC will agree
on, things aren’t exactly looking up.
The reasons for not agreeing on a plan ranges from
no water at over 3000 schools for washing, lack of
PPE, lack of educators, lack of desks, lack of space,
lack of brain power and not even to speak of some
parents refusing to send their children back to
school to ‘die.’
Since it is so difficult for them to think critically,
here are some ideas:
Firstly, we could do with people in decision making
roles who were actually teachers and maybe an
honestly earned degree or two who could have
foreseen these problems when the lockdown was
instituted. But, hey, I’m not one to dwell on the
past, so here’s what we can do now: Adjust the
lockdown level criteria. Level 3 should include
gatherings of 30 people or less, across the board,
then you could start to accommodate a reasonable
amount of classes.
Not happy, here’s another: A school day generally
starts at 07:30 and including extra-mural activities,
could continue up to 17:00. That’s nine and a half
hours!
Having acknowledged that there won’t be any
extra-curricular activities for the rest of 2020 at
schools, it leaves us with some options to have
fewer students in a class but have more teaching
sessions. As an example, a class of 30 children
could be divided into three groups of ten (plenty of
social distancing space) and have 2 and a half hours
(five periods) intense schooling from 07:30 - 10:00
and go home. The next group gets taught from
11:30 – 14:00 and the last from 14:30 – 17:00.
Everyone goes home, including teachers.
Alternatively, divide classes in two groups and
have them come in to be taught on alternate days.
No, marking of books, no lunch-breaks, no
swopping of classes. No unnecessary meetings.
Teach the essentials, sanitize, keep your distance,
go home. You get the idea, plans can be made. The
fact that we simply have come up with no plan is
quite frankly, laughable.
The bottom line is that plans could have been made
a long time ago and should have. Fr a salary of
R2m, we should expect some intellect. We need
more than these bamboozling fools to lead us in the
various ministries, instead, we got what we voted
for.
There, now that’s out of my system.