Steven Klukowski
With the reopening on Wednesday of both public and private schools for Grade 11 and 12 learners it was smooth sailing in the //Kharas region as the majority of schools successfully complied with the state of emergency regulations to ensure the virulent coronavirus is kept in check.
Pieter Skeyer, the principal of PK De Villiers Secondary School, explained that teachers, learners and support staff members had all been screened for high body temperature and their hands sanitized in the morning before classes resumed.
“I can report that every person on the school premises is wearing a mask as required in terms of measures put in place to curb further spread of coronavirus,” assured the school principal. According to the headmaster, in addition to learners coming with their own masks the education ministry has also provided schools with masks.
“This is to counter for instances where learners report to school maybe forgetting masks at home or only having disposable masks which only cater for a one-off use.” He said social distancing regulations are fully being adhered to at the school as well. He explained that learners, who remain in classrooms, are arranged in such a manner that they are placed a distance of one-and-a-half metres from each other whilst teachers rotate within the allocated classrooms, offering face-to-face learning.
“Learners are furthermore under supervision when moving on school grounds during break time in order to ensure they keep their social distance,” said Skeyer.
The principal also said more than 80% of the learners turned up at the school on the first day.
“In terms of assignments given to learners through e-learning whilst at home, we are facing the challenge that not all of them had access to information communication technology services and also the affordability of data required to access the internet,” he expressed concern.
According to him, learners are mainly involved in revision though catching up on their assignments remains a challenge at the public school.
“We basically have seven weeks left to prepare these learners in order to sit for the second term examinations and we are confident that the syllabus would have been covered accordingly by then,” further assured the school headmaster in conclusion.
Keetmanshoop Private School principal, Piet O’ Callaghan informed this media house that they are fully in control in terms of enforcing regulations curbing the further spread of Covid-19.
“The school bought thermo-guns and hand sanitizers whilst learners came with their own masks,” he explained. The principal added that all those accessing the school daily are first screened and their hands sanitized prior to entering the premises. “We are also in a fortunate position having three private medical doctors as school parents in case of a medical emergency,” he said.
O’Callaghan added that they arranged for the Grade 12 learners to write examinations, initially scheduled just before the announcement of the state of emergency, during their time of staying at home before returning to school yesterday.