We need a more flexible approach to the reopening of schools

This week, along with roughly 26,000 other school principals, I found myself trying to decide what the best course of action should be regarding the start of the 2021 academic year. Regrettably, it was a case of déjà vu, given the year we had in 2020.

Much is known about the inequality that exists in all spheres of South African life, but focusing on these inequalities without a plan to address them seems to be a zero-sum game. The partnership that the medical facilities have developed in providing beds during this pandemic must surely be a superb example of a public-private partnership that works for the best interests of all patients.

The Solidarity Fund has, at its core, the ideal of mobilising private funding into the public “spaces” that have the most desperate needs at a time when urgency and agility are of the highest priority.

Can our education fraternity think similarly at this time?

Every parent wants the best, in health and education, for their children – we are all the same in this. Every school principal wants the best, in health and education, for her or his charges – we are all the same in this.

We know, however, that resources differ dramatically. Could I suggest, implore, advocate for a differentiated approach to the opening of schools based on a few guidelines? This pandemic will be with us for the foreseeable future and we need to keep the well-being of our young citizens uppermost in mind. It is not going to get easier in the short term.

A few suggestions:

If all resourced schools, public and independent, were tasked with assisting one or two under-resourced schools with personal protective equipment provision and educational resources, be this human capital in the form of support or intellectual capital in the form of worksheets etc, and if these schools then stuck rigorously to the protocols required to limit the spread of Covid-19, these schools could be allowed to reopen.

If children in resourced schools, and here I refer more particularly to secondary schools, could partner with a “friend” in an under-resourced school by checking in daily and WhatsApping an exercise or two from their teachers, perhaps we can begin to bridge the great divide? Young people are often far more ready to share than we older folk are – indeed, they share digitally all the time.

If a region is particularly hard hit by the pandemic, then this region should be regulated differently than the region where very few cases are being registered. Currently, a few provinces are peaking while others are less challenged. Surely then, schools in different regions can respond differently to enable their children to participate in their learning journey knowing that the peak may arrive at another time in their area.

The challenge with a blanket approach to regulation in the South African education landscape is that our schools are so very different. I would like to believe that my 26,000 colleagues would welcome the opportunity to partner with another school – many do already – in return for being able to remain open if we can ensure the safety of our learners.

To make this a reality, we would need the various advocacy groups and regulators to work together to craft a more nuanced approach to the regulations. The ability to deviate under Lockdown Level 3 in 2020 was a most useful tool for many of our schools – both public and independent – and something along these lines is a necessary option as we navigate 2021. If we can align this opportunity to deviate with a national imperative to partner in some form or fashion, we may see the beginning of a new narrative away from the narrow and unhelpful current discourse of the haves and the have-nots in education.

Independent schooling is a necessary part of a national education landscape in a democracy. Private entities assist the national discourse in many disciplines and, as such, perhaps the time has come for the national education fraternity to embrace the strength of both the public and independent sector and work towards solutions that celebrate the value of both constructs.

The cliché that those in schools are our future, although trite, remains true. If more than one million young people left our schooling system in 2020, through the challenges of schooling being disrupted, the case for a differentiated approach in allowing schools to be open is most compelling. The challenges presented by the interruption of the school feeding schemes in 2020 illustrate the realities that many principals are having to deal with.

My plea, to those who are in the corridors of power, or who represent advocacy groups, independent schools’ associations, unions, the government, is that we could consider alternatives to a “one-size-fits-all” approach.

All parents want the best for their children, in health and in education. All principals want the same. Notwithstanding the devastating pandemic numbers we are dealing with at this particular time, I would venture that a differentiated approach that provides a measure of autonomy and flexibility to principals with their superior knowledge of their community issues and their school context would get us further in this education journey than a blanket regulation that risks more regression than progression. DM 

George Harris is the headmaster of Hilton College and writes in his personal capacity.