Johannesburg – Nigerian-born former journalist, now pastor and author based in Ukraine, Sunday Adelaja, puts it beautifully when he says: “Where there’s no accountability, there will also be no responsibility.”
And the lack of accountability is creating panic in basic education with officials and teachers shifting the blame for the irresponsible and callous way in which they are reporting – or not reporting – Covid-19 cases at schools.
This week, we learnt with horror that a pupil tested positive for Covid-19 at Lephola Secondary School in Welkom, Free State, last Wednesday.
The pupil died five days later from Covid-19 complications.
And how did the principal and school handle the news that one of their grade 12 pupils had tested positive for Covid-19?
The principal sent all pupils home, telling parents that the school will be closed for cleaning. Even more disturbing is that pupils, parents and even the school governing body found out on social media that a pupil had died from Covid-related complications.
A teacher and 12 other pupils, who are in the same class as the deceased pupil, have since tested positive for Covid-19.
There is clearly a link between the deceased pupil and other infections at the school.
This highlights the importance of contact tracing to ensure that those who may have been affected or infected are notified so that precautions are taken to contain the spread of the virus.
How then does a school, with 98% of its staff comprising professionals who have no less than a national diploma or degree, not understand the importance of reporting Covid-19 cases, especially to parents?
It is a shame.
Even more shameful is that when the media, parents and the communities took the school to task for the callous way in which it handled the matter, education officials were too quick to shift the blame.
Free State department of education spokesperson Howard Ndaba was only too happy to point out the speck in the community’s eye. He said the rising number of cases in the province was a reflection of what was happening in communities, noting that Covid-19 cases increase after the weekend and pupils spread the virus at schools.
Even more disturbing is his assertion that parents were not told because his department needed to establish the facts from the provincial department of health.
Hogwash! You don’t shut down a school under the pretence that you are cleaning. You communicate that you suspect that there is a case of Covid-19 infection.
Thereafter, you keep pupils and parents informed as you receive new information.
You don’t lie when it comes to this fast-spreading and deadly virus. We are in serious trouble when our principals, teachers and education officials need to be reminded of this.
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