Government has spent close to N$70 million to help fight the spread of Covid-19 in schools as learners return today for the start of the new academic year.
In an interview with New Era yesterday, the education ministry executive director Sanet Steenkamp said they have allocated N$46 million towards assisting public schools to procure hand sanitisers. For private schools, she said, the ministry allocated a once-off grant because many parents lost an income due to Covid-19.
She said, in total, the education ministry has spent close to N$70 million just for sanitisers. “There was a request from private schools to consider the situation. So we had an amount of N$200 per primary learner enrolled as well as N$300 enrolled at private schools.
We are at the tail end of making payments since December/November last year for Covid-related expenditure, so learners are safe when they report for schools,” she said. Although teachers returned to school on 14 January, learners from pre-primary to grade 11, will return today.
Advanced subsidiary learners will return on 16 February. The ministry promised to share a circular guiding the schools on how to handle Covid-19 cases by ensuring transmissions are minimised. “The stance of the ministry is that schools should remain open.
Out of the 195 countries that shut the doors to schools for approximately five months, 101 countries are now back for face-to-face learning. Namibia is one of them and we are very excited about that,” Steenkamp remarked.
Schools are expected to communicate to parents as to what teaching and learning mode they will use. In terms of social distancing, which is a major issue, Steenkamp reiterated that none of the teaching modes announced during 2020 have been withdrawn.
“The learning from home mode is still in place with the same conditions of parents contacting the schools. There is a possibility of the time-based cohosts’ alternating school days- meaning the learner will only attend a certain percentage or a certain number of days while other schools are making use of the platooning system,” she stated.
Additionally, Steenkamp said, the ministry’s resilient plan has been approved by Cabinet already last year after an extensive consultative meeting with the regions, unions and other stakeholders.
Equally, she added, the ministry is looking at an academic recovery plan at every single school. “That means in the first five to eight weeks, teachers have to make sure that when a child comes to school, they have to do a diagnostic assessment to see at which level is the child at mastering in terms of competencies, knowledge and skills.
Between the five to eight weeks, the teacher has to do the catch or learning support and expect additional classes and time to be allocated to different topics, subjects and themes,” she noted. She said during 2020, all schools nationally were issued with health protocols as what should be done in case of any Covid-related symptoms.
- anakale@nepc.com.na