Education
- How did, does or will her Department communicate with parents about access to online or additional educational resources during the lockdown period;
- whether her Department will extend access to additional or online learning material to communities that do not have internet access after the lockdown period as a strategy to address the backlog with regard to contact time; if so, what are the relevant details?
Before schools closed, Brian Schreuder, Head of Department, asked that schools ensure that they have the relevant communication systems in place so that communication to parents would be possible during lockdown.
Various WhatsApp groups have been created to communicate directly with principals. Communication is sent to principals via email and WhatsApp and requests to distribute to their teachers or parents are made.
Minister Schafer has also released to mainstream and social media 5 parts of a series on “Quality Learning @ home”. This series aims to inform teachers, parents and learners about the different curriculum offerings during lockdown.
Subject advisors in each district are also communicating directly with teachers. These teachers are to also inform the parents in their respective classes about what is on offer – taking into account the realities of their learner population.
In some instances, parents have been requested to collect additional curriculum material at schools when learners collect meals as part of the emergency school feeding programme in the province.
(2) The WCED has for many years, but more actively over the past 5, advocated e-learning. Millions of rands have been invested in this programme, which we believe has prepared us for the lockdown to some extent. We are aware that many communities do not have access to free data or equipment. The rollout of wifi hotspots by municipalities and the provincial government assists us in some instances, but more can be done to improve wifi access across the board. We have asked that when schools return, teachers prepare in advance 4 weeks’ worth of curriculum delivery so that should lockdown resume, teachers can distribute materials to learners, at short notice, that cannot access non-digital materials. We are also looking into community paper distribution and have engaged with various radio stations for additional broadcasted lessons. Lessons are currently being broadcast on a variety of platforms, including DSTV and SABC.
The curriculum has been trimmed down quite considerably already. The WCED will prioritise support in areas where digital learning has not been possible, however, we know that will not “catch up” with the full curriculum. We also do not want to place unnecessary pressure on teachers and learners when they return.
