- The Covid-19 pandemic has had an extremely disruptive impact on education around the world, and South Africa is no exception.
- Approximately 1.2 billion learners – more than two-thirds of all learners enrolled worldwide – are affected by the closing of schools globally.
- The reopening of schools is rightly considered a priority, especially since the risk of infection and death for children is very low. Yet schooling cannot resume in South Africa if safety precautions have not been provided to learners and school staff alike.
- Providing a child with a laptop or tablet and giving them access to data does not provide a solution to the educational challenges faced by learners in South Africa today.
- South Africans need to use this crisis to re-energise a broader drive to reform our education system. The drive for better education must start now.
