YCLSA calls on government to shut down all schools
14 July 2020
The Young Communist League of South Africa reiterates the call for schools to be shut down and for the Department of Basic Education to postpone the unpopular and unfounded decision for the continuity of the academic calendar even when circumstances do not allow.
Lives cannot be compromised for lack of ideas and incompetence. The decision to resume the academic calendar under the current conditions is merely to substitute the responsibility for the production of ideas by putting the lives of learners, teachers, support staff and parents in danger. Even during a time where schools are not coping against the novel corona virus, the Department of Basic Education remains occupied with a hope that is scientifically unforeseeable, unless a vaccine is found.
In May 2020, the Political Commission of the Young Communist League pronounced that learners in Grade 12 should be taken to camps and the rest should remain at home. Towards the end of May 2020, the YCL gave the Department an option to prove that indeed the best safety precautions could be installed prior the reopening of schools. Thereafter, we declared our lack of confidence in the precautions that were put in place and continued to pronounce our call to put lives before the ambition to resume the academic calendar.
The current unfortunate reality of the escalating number of Covid-19 cases in schools could have easily been avoided if the Department of Basic Education prioritized the safety of learners and workers before the ambition to resume the academic calendar.