Academic uncertainty to remain, says education expert
Education expert Mary Metcalfe says the Department of Basic Education must accept that there will be uncertainty around the academic calendar for the next few years.
Basic Education director-general Hubert Mweli presented the department’s plan to reopen schools to Parliament's education committee on Wednesday.
Schools have been closed since March 18 as part of the government’s measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Metcalf says there is little doubt that Covid-19 will impact the schooling system for a while yet.
ALSO READ: Schools to reopen in May, MPs told
"We must stop looking for certainties in the school plans and even the projections about when schools will come back.
"I understand that this virus is going to be with us for two to three years. I understand we are going to get new phases of peaks and all of that will impact the school calendar.
"So we need, as a country, to understand that we live in a time of uncertainty and we need to be guided by the science.”
Metcalfe says by not sending the younger pupils to school first, the department has given itself some room to understand the best course of action.
"I don't think that these dates will remain fixed. But the younger children will not be coming back for another month and a half and what that does, it allows the system to learn what works and what doesn't work.
"So, what we need to get ourselves up for is the fact that we will be needing to implement distance learning.”