OVER 40 GRADE I PUPILS IN CLASS, TEACHERS WORRIED

SITEKI – Grade I teachers at KaMkhweli Primary School fear being exposed to the COVID-19 pandemic as they teach over 40 pupils per class.

A concerned parent said the educators had voiced their concern with the Head teacher, Sakhile Dlamini. The parent said the pupils sat in pairs in their desks, which also puts them at high risk of spreading the virus due to the close proximity seating arrangements. The parent said there were three Grade I classrooms which accommodates a large number of pupils.
According to the parent, the pupils start lessons at 8am and finish at 2:15pm. “In fact, I was told that there are 45 pupils per class. They sit in pairs and that is one of the concerns raised by the teachers. Due to their numbers, they are expected to come for their lessons every day compared to the others who come on scheduled days. The teachers fear that they might contract the virus because of this arrangement,” the parent said. Called to shed light on this matter, a teacher at the school, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed that they feared contracting the virus.

Concerned

*Zama said they had about 45 pupils per class in all the three Grade I classrooms. She said they were concerned with the level of safety because they were exposed to a high number of pupils. The teacher further said they had no masks to distribute among the learners who did not have any. She said they were faced by the same challenge with sanitisers, which put them at a high risk of being infected with the virus. “The other classes have the normal number of 20 pupils per class. But Grade I classes are overcrowded. The children come from different homes and some without masks and it is chaos. As teachers, we are afraid that we are at a high risk of contracting and spreding the virus due to exposure to this environment that is not conducive in this pandemic era,” she said.

The educator asked government to intervene and provide them with masks and sanitisers. Interestingly, the pictures shared to this publication showed some of the pupils without masks.
The school’s Head teacher, Dlamini, sounded surprised on how the pictures of pupils in class had been leaked to the media.

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