SCHOOLS REOPENING: SNAT READY TO GO TO COURT

 





MANZINI - SNAT maintains its positions regarding the reopening of school on Monday and is prepared to take the legal route if government plans to go ahead as announced by the Prime Minister (PM), Ambrose Dlamini.

This is according to a statement which was released by the Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General, Sikelela Dlamini.
The statement followed the PM’s announcement that government was beginning a phased approach of reopening schools and tertiary institutions with effect from Monday July 6, 2020. He said the first phase involves the opening of Form Vs and completing classes in tertiary institutions.

In that regard, the teachers’ union secretary general said as SNAT, they were equally concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic that was ravaging humanity the world over. He said its vicious jaws were swallowing great minds in both developed and developing societies alike.
However, he said government together with other stakeholders in the education sector have been fighting tooth and nail to ensure that schools reopen and the dated it had confirmed was Monday.

Following the announcement which was made earlier on, he  said as SNAT they had been inspecting schools for the past two weeks to assess the preparedness of the institutions towards reopening.

Hazardous

He said high schools that were visited by SNAT were 24. He said their latest update on the state of readiness in these schools was that not all the requirements had been met by the schools. He said this then made it hazardous and extremely dangerous to reopen schools on Monday.

He said the schools’ preparation process needed to be given more time as Monday was too close. In fact, he said a majority of the schools, particularly rural schools, were not at all ready to reopen.

In that regard, the teachers’ union secretary general said they maintained that unless and until all the 933 schools were adequately prepared for the reopening of schools, the institutions should remain closed.

“The school reopening date should be postponed a bit,” he said. He also said if the serious steps that government had taken this week were taken 30 days ago, the schools’ level of preparedness would have been indisputable by now.

Duty

“Therefore as the SNAT we reiterate that teachers should not go to duty stations that have not adequately met all the safety and health requirements,” the secretary general said.

Moreover, he said if government continues with the reopening schools, as anticipated, as SNAT they would be left with no other option to approach the courts of the land. He said in court, they would be defending the fundamental right to life of not only their members, but also lives of the learners that they teach.

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