South African non-profit association, Independent Schools Association of Southern Africa (Isasa) has managed to negotiate special pricing on data and devices from South Africa’s largest mobile networks to assist pupils during the lockdown.
According to Tony Marshall, The Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools Deputy Provincial Manager said they have been focusing on developing effective and efficient school governing bodies to deliver quality education in all schools.
Independent Schools Association of Southern African has 127 member schools in the Western Cape from a total of 273 independent schools, which includes low fee and no-fee schools. Khalid Sayed, the ANC’s provincial spokesperson on education, welcomed Isasa’s initiatives and added that “this should benefit all schools and all pupils in the province”.
Lebogang Montjane, Isasa Executive Director said Vodacom and MTN agreed to make standard data available at a reduced cost, as well as URL-linked data at a significantly reduced cost, for the duration of lockdown.
Lorraine Botha, the DA’s provincial spokesperson on education, added: “Isasa and the school governing bodies have shared their commitment to schooling within our province … supporting and allaying fears of our teacher fraternity in regard to the scare that Covid-19 brought about.”
Sayed said Isasa conceded to the ANC’s concerns that all children could contract and spread Covid-19, and anyone could die from the virus. He said that was why the ANC, with its alliance partners in the Western Cape, wanted schools closed until after the peak of the pandemic.
He said organisations representing governing bodies from schools in working-class communities critically lacked resources and complained of a lack of support from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED).”This shows how the WCED favours private schools and former Model C schools over poor schools,” Sayed added.
