Good day Sir,
As a concerned parent I have filled petitions fighting against the opening of schools amid this pandemic. The country is transitioning into level 3 of the lockdown the same time government expect an increase in infection rates and fatalities and our children will be in the middle of it all.
I would like to suggest somethong that I hope will make an impact somewhere. I hope it makes sense or that it will make a difference in our current dilemma. I was thinking that the Education Ministry should consider moving the cirriculum year to overlap into 2021. See we are facing unusual circumstances and they proved that in the face of crisis major decision and changes can be made for the benefit of South Africans.
This will benefit us for 2reasons.
1. If they restart the ciriculum in Sept/Oct the temperatures are rising. That is already good news because that will mean a significant drop in corona infections.
That will put parents at ease.
Secondly if they start Sept/October school can close 20 dec for the holiday an reopen earliest after new year and they can finish the 2020 ciriculum around April or May 2021. That will give them time for quality education instead of going for quantity. We will be more or less sure of no interruptions or school closures due to infections.

If they open now, we are most positive that there will be schools that will have to close and send staff and/or kids off to quarentine.
See we are looking at plans on paper and how good all this looks on paper! The reality and implementation are two different things.

We saw Government can lock down a country to protect its people from danger. So what will be hard or impossible around shifting the school year into an overlap. So what if one school year takes up half of 2 different years. In the end we reach the goal: educating our children. I hope it makes sense or that it will make a difference in our current dilemma. Cause Im not sure I want my kids to face corona or to repeat a year and be miserable or even slide through into the next grade without merit
Regards
Dedré