The safety of children should be the primary concern in the debate around schools being closed or staying open.
Our constitution provides for the right to basic education, but the student’s organisation Cosas’ ongoing campaign to disrupt schools and even harm learners, compromises this right.
More than two million children up to the age of 15 have to stay at home without any adult supervision because their caregivers have to work. Almost a million of these kids are under the age of six.
“Millions of South African kids have to stay home under difficult circumstances with no access to education or the internet for self-study,” says Daleen Gouws, the spokesperson of Action Society. “They are vulnerable when left home alone, but caregivers have to work to provide for their families. The decision to close schools again was very irresponsible as it puts more children in South Africa in harm’s way.”
Action Society is also worried about the more than nine million kids who receive a daily meal from the school feeding programme, but who now have to go without healthy nutrition.
“Children should always be safe, with proper care and nutrition,” says Gouws. “The future of our children should be protected now, or it won’t matter that they survived a pandemic in years to come, but they have a poor education.”
Action Society calls on the government to open all schools because each child has the right to education, and it’s teachers responsibility to educate them.
ISSUED BY: Action Society
DATE: 29 July 2020
FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES:
Daleen Gouws,
Spokesperson: Action Society,
Cell: 081 233 8351
