AfriForum has expressed concern about the Gauteng Education Department’s plan to deploy ‘COVID-19 Brigades’ to the province’s schools.
This initiative appears intended to combat the spread of the virus as schools begin to reopen. Their duties have not been properly clarified, but include ‘scanning’ staff and learners and deciding on what is safe and necessary.
AfriForum said it was worrying that the members of these brigades would be making decisions on the basis of a few days’ training, and that they would in some cases be a mere year or two older than the learners they are meant to monitor. It was unclear what would happen if a member of staff and a member of the brigade differed on a matter related to Covid-19.
Henk Maree, a spokesman for AfriForum, said: ‘It would have been more sensible if the department had contacted schools and given them the choice of making use of the brigades. Many schools have active parent and community involvement and this role can be filled from within the community.’
AfriForum was also concerned about the military undertone of the initiative, and the risk of compromising the rights to privacy of staff and learners.
It offered legal advice to schools that felt the brigade initiative was undermining their own plans.