The Daily Voice asked parents what they thought of government’s announcement to reopen schools.
Mom Chantel Jacobs, 38, of Westridge, has an eight-year-old son in Grade 3 with a rare heart condition and lung problems.
“His condition is called Tetralogy of Fallot. He has had open heart surgery at six months old and then they discovered that Zac has one functioning lung,” she says.
“So with Covid-19 causing respiratory problems, it won’t be good for him.”
Pastor Nicky Edson of Strandfontein says: “I think the resolution would be to have double classes that start in the morning at 8am to 12.30pm and the second one between 1 and 4pm.
Pastor Nicky Edson
Felicity Bergman of Hout Bay says: “I have three foster children, one in Grade 10, one in Grade R and another in Grade 4. Here in Hout Bay people are not doing social distancing.
“I will not be sending my children back to school, I would rather have them repeat the school year.”
Felicity Bergman of Hout Bay
Educator, Joanne Trout, 38, from Strandfontein, says: “I will be adapting to homeschooling. I have a daughter in Grade 3. I have been doing homeschooling during lockdown and have kept my child safe from the virus and now I must send her into a school ground where there are hundreds of children.”
Mariam Meyer, 58, from Delft says: “I have a daughter in Grade 7 and I need to pay for school transport. I also need to think of her safety, when she must
perhaps walk from here to her school in Belhar.”
Educator, Joanne Trout
Mom Candice van Reenen, of Delft, who is the founder of Western Cape Missing Persons says: “We need to think of the teachers also. How are they going to cram all the children into one classroom? How are they going to sit with those masks on the whole day? How are children going to breathe in their own carbon dioxide the whole day?”