Nomsa Mpongwana Grade 7 pupils being screened as they arrive at school when schools had first returned during Covid-19 lockdown. Picture: Phando Jikelo/African News Agency (ANA)
Cape Town - The ANC in the province wants the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) to give special attention to under-resourced schools during the implementation of plans to get education and training back on track after the devastating disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic.
ANC provincial education spokesperson Khalid Sayed was reacting to a written reply he received from Education MEC David Maynier in answer to his question about the impact of Covid-19 on education between 2020 and 2022 and how many school days were lost due to the pandemic in 2020 and 2021.
Sayed also wanted to know what the impact of days lost was on learning and teaching, and about specific programmes put in place to assist the learners to catch up.
In his answer, Maynier said the Western Cape was the only province in the country that had a reliable and clear measure of learning outcomes and that the 2021 systemic tests conducted in the province in October 2021 provided the clearest, internationally benchmarked and independent analysis of learning losses suffered by the learners.
He said the department’s administrative data from its Temporary Revised Education Plans (Trep) survey showed that between closures and rotating timetables, 155 school days were lost in 2020 and 2021 in the province.
“While we had previously made great progress with a steady increase in performance in years preceding 2020, these gains have unfortunately been reversed as a result of the pandemic.”
Maynier said that for both language and maths, performance levels dropped significantly and that the most affected phase was the foundation phase.
With regards to the pressure that was placed on teachers during the Covid-19 period to focus on administrative work, Sayed said it was quite a drawback because a lot of that energy could have been spent on actual teaching and on getting learners through the effects of Covid-19.
He said what was needed was a greater emphasis on psychosocial support, because while it was vital to have these programmes in place and they needed to be coupled with strong psychological and social support for learners still reeling from the effects of Covid-19.
“They have lost loved ones, and they have lost friends. They've also lost out on a lot of academic learning which has impacted on the psyche of many learners, particularly in conditions where they are now surrounded by violence and criminality,” Sayed said.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za