BusinessLive reports that a survey by SA’s five teacher unions shows that significant progress has been made over the past month to prepare for the opening of schools on Monday.  

It also shows, however, that some schools are not fully prepared.  Schools were initially set to open on 27 January, but the country was in the midst of a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and that date was subsequently pushed to 15 February.  The five teachers unions, namely Sadtu, SAOU, Naptosa, the PEU and Natu, conducted combined surveys of their members in January before schools were set to open, and again in February.  The second survey received 4,309 responses from principals across the country, which represented about 19% of schools nationally.  Mugwena Maluleke of Sadtu noted on Friday his concern about the lack of responses received from principals in the February survey.  According to the survey, 57% of the schools have all the hand sanitiser required, up from only 40% in January.  Regarding surface sanitisers, 59% of the schools surveyed have supplies, up from 30% in January.  There is still a major issue in respect of masks, with only 26% of principals surveyed indicating last week that they had all the masks needed when students return on Monday.  Sixty-nine percent said they did not have masks, while 5% said they were not sure.  This was in comparison to only 20% of schools having masks in January.  

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Claudi Mailovich at BusinessLive

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