The opening and reopening of schools in South Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic: An appraisal from two vantage points

Johannes (Hannes) Van Der Walt,Izak Oosthuizen

doi:10.18820/2519593x/pie.v39.i1.3

Abstract

General legislation as well as legislation specifically regulating education in South Africa is aimed at the protection and advancement of the best interests of children (learners). Developments in the school education sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, which reached the shores of South Africa in March 2020, starkly underscored that not only the interests of the learners were at stake but also those of a variety of other stakeholders such as the parents (-in-organisation), the teachers (-in-organisation), the wider community (civil society) and the state (in the form of, for instance, the Departments of Basic Education and of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs). An examination of the situation in the schooling sector reveals that decisions had to be taken about the opening and reopening of schools in a context of great complexity. This paper examines this complexity from two vantage points, a societal-theoretical and a pedagogical-ethical perspective. The societal-theoretical perspective might help all the role-players to gain a deeper understanding of what their respective roles should be during a crisis: does a situation such as this indeed require a nanny-state (based on the notion of an external locus of control) or should the state allow all those involved to just muddle through the crisis; how should the different role-players interact with one another while confining themselves to their own spheres of competence and respecting those of other parties? The pedagogical-ethical perspective, in turn, might assist the various role-players to understand the ethical dilemmas that tend to surface during a pandemic. The aim of the investigation was to derive guidelines for role-players to find their way through the complexity brought about by a crisis such as a pandemic that seemed to threaten the very fibre of civil life.

Highlights

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa in early March 2020 brought with it a number of changes in our social life – to such an extent that by the end of 2020 people began talking of “the new normal” that has arrived
The situation in South Africa during the state of emergency declared by the Government on 26 March 2020 undoubtedly has the appearance of an interlocking web of political, social, economic, religious, pedagogical, ethical and philosophical sub-systems that constantly rearranged themselves in response to the proclamations of the Government and of the various ministries
The Government more than once found itself caught up in a maelstrom of pressures from all sides: the teachers’ unions, the parents-in-organisation in the form of a considerable number of school governing bodies affiliated with FEDSAS, the Human Rights Commission (Gregan, 2020), the nine provincial departments of education, the Members of Provincial Executive Councils charged with education (Gregan, 2020b: 6), the central Government in the shape of the Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the so-called Command Council and even the Cabinet (Prince, 2020), political parties, medical advisers and several more

Summary

Introduction

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa in early March 2020 brought with it a number of changes in our social life – to such an extent that by the end of 2020 people began talking of “the new normal” that has arrived This new normal entailed that for the foreseeable future people (see footnote 1) will have to wear face masks in public, maintain physical and social distance, sanitise their hands, wash their hands regularly, avoid large gatherings of people, avoid buying liquor during weekends, avoid touring other countries or receiving foreign visitors, reduce the number of social visits and so on. Events since March 2020, the measures taken by the Government, starkly revealed that more than just the interest of children, in this case the school learners, was at stake during the pandemic Teachers, those with comorbidities, had to be protected. Teachers were expected to teach online, during the first three levels of the state of emergency.

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