Coronavirus outbreak closes all South African universities, colleges
by Schools4SA
Minister of Greater Education, Science and Technologies Blade Nzimande has announced on Tuesday 17 March, that all Universities and Colleges in South Africa will be closed from Wednesday 18 March as a result of coronavirus.
Minister of Greater Education, Science and Technologies Blade Nzimande has announced on Tuesday 17 March, that all Universities and Colleges in South Africa will be closed from Wednesday 18 March as a result of coronavirus.
The Post Schooling Education and Coaching Method (PSET) consists of about 2.5 million students and employees members.
Nzimande briefed the media on the outcome of the meeting and measures that all 26 public universities and TVET colleges is going to be implementing to additional combat the coronavirus pandemic within the Post School Education and Coaching sector.
Nzimande met with USAF, SACPO, SAUS and numerous labour unions as portion of consultations on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on measures to combat coronavirus on Sunday.
Here’s what Nzimande recommended to be able to combat coronavirus
The meeting on Tuesday agreed towards the following quick measures: •All post-school institutions might be closed for early recess with impact from tomorrow, the 18th March 2020. This consists of the typical planned institutional breaks, the majority of which have been planned for the end of this week or the beginning of subsequent week. Some institutions have already produced these decisions;
• Institutions will plan to return from this break on 15 April 2020, following the Easter weekend, based around the assessment from the course of this virus. Institutional arrangements will also consist of accommodation arrangement for students and leave arrangements for workers;
• Some elements of institutional activities will continue during this period, which include postgraduate and research work. Institutions will, on the other hand, be utilising this break period to identify and discover digital and on line methodologies for teaching and mastering that may well must be put in spot to assistance the academic programme at a later stage;
• As a sector, we'll continue to meet throughout this period to assess the situation relating to coronavirus to ensure that we are able to make any choices on the basis of developments in relation to the virus; and We have also agreed that all our institutions will announce further measures that could be taken to minimise risk to all employees at all our institutions, such as each our departments and entities.
• Suggestions place in place prior to closure of universities and colleges
The following recommendations, as established on Monday will also be followed: •All international travel really should be cancelled or postponed at this point in time because of the coronavirus. Any students or employees of public institutions who might have a vital reason to travel internationally should consult the relevant authorities at their institution and are essential to report their planned travel according to the institutional protocols in place;
•All folks who've travelled internationally must self-isolate for any period of 14 days. Furthermore, students or employees members of public institutions are essential to report their travel towards the institutional authorities prior to their return, in order that their doable return to work/study is often efficiently monitored;
•Travel inside South Africa ought to be limited to essential travel at the existing time. Wherever attainable, planned meetings, symposia or conferences need to be restricted, and alternative formats explored, including the usage of online and telecommunications technology;
•Just about every institution requirements to possess in place a communication tactic to manage typical communication with its neighborhood. Public well being information is readily available by way of the NICD and also the DOH and the Universities South Africa webpage may also be updated with common communication to the university community;
•The majority of public universities and some public TVET colleges are certainly not just teaching and understanding spaces, but are also living spaces, which involve student residences and staff housing. Each institution will create a mitigation program for its residence system, to ensure that protocols and controls are in place to mitigate the spread in the coronavirus and to supply for isolation facilities exactly where essential; and
•All students and staff are urged to take the appropriate social distancing protocols really seriously. These include limiting social interaction, keeping acceptable distance from other folks, not shaking hands or hugging, typical hand-washing, instant consultation with well being services inside the event that you just create a fever or cough, and acceptable self-isolation In the event you fall ill.
