When Covid-19 hit South Africa in March 2020, the introduction of rotational timetabling was the response of the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to the pandemic at the time.
However, education activists, Equal Education (EE) strongly urge that the government does away with rotational timetabling, as this will lead to a lost generation of learners.
One of the matriculants who were badly affected, Xolani Mtshali, a Grade 12 learner EE member from KwaZulu-Natal shared:
Even though I know there were TV and radio programmes for extra lessons, we do not have a TV at my house and on the radio, they concentrated a lot on physics (which I did not study) and because I stay in a rural area people who would be able to help me with certain subjects stay very far from me, so it was difficult.
EE commended the efforts of the Education Departments for supporting the matric learners but the very same government hadn’t ensured that basic education is being treated as a key priority.
The learner organisation demanded that the Department of Basic Education and Provincial Education Departments fulfill their legal obligations in terms of the Norms and Standards for Public School Infrastructure and to #FixOurSchools so learners and teachers do not have to fight the odds to achieve excellence.
EE has also urged the DBE to invest in strengthening foundation phase learning, as a schooling system and prioritising basic education, this being reflected in national and provincial treasury's funding commitments and government fighting against any fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
The organisation further mentioned that the progress that the country has made so far in the education system will be reversed if these demands are continuously ignored.
For the full statement, click here.
