The challenges of double shift at Mater Spei
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday June 5, 2020 17:25
Speaking to this publication this week, Munyere raised a concern that during the second shift there is a high risk of teachers experiencing fatigue due to exhaustion caused by splitting classes into two.
He said that as a way of maintaining social distancing at the school, they are currently using double shift for the Form 5 group in order to prepare for the second batch of students.
The school head said in the process of splitting classes and lessons they have doubled the workload of the teachers.
Munyere further said that each classroom is expected to have a maximum of 25 students unlike in the past where teachers taught between 38-47 students in a class depending on the subject.
He said due to the introduction of double shift they have cancelled the afternoon study. The school head further said: “We are encountering some problems with school boarders due to this double shift. We have close to 452 boarders and our worry is that when they finish their shift they have no place to go but rather go back to their dormitories and do nothing.”
He added that they are still in talks with the relevant stakeholders to come up with a better plan suitable for the boarders in order for them to have an academic activity after their shift.
He further said that they also have a problem of congestion at the girl dormitories but for now, they have made use of the common rooms to create space. Munyere also disclosed that the ministry has promised to supply them with porta cabins in order to create space for social distancing purposes.
He stated they gave both the teachers and students orientation on Tuesday mainly to reassure them of their safety against COVID-19.
“Some of the teachers were nervous about the interactions in the school and raised worries that they were not certain if the students were free from COVID-19 looking at the fact that they came to report back to school from different destinations,” reported the school head.
When speaking about the school preparedness, Munyere said that they have installed washbasins and water geysers for the first group of 834 students.
He said that they are in the process of increasing the washbasins and water geysers to cater for all the 1,743 students.
He further said that as for the process of registration they were able to register all the Form 5 students since June 2 because the students reported for duty as early as 6:30am.
Munyere said:“There is a need to applaud the parents for bringing their children earlier to school. Registration was also done through the five houses and it made the process quicker and gave the students ample time for morning studies.” He also said that the Francistown City council (FCC) has assisted them with 31 Ipelegeng employees who helped with disinfecting the classrooms after every shift.
He added that the Ministry of Basic Education (MoBE) has deployed two Safety and Health Environment (SHE) officers at the school. .
He gave gratitude to the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) for buying cloth face masks in bulk and availing them to the disadvantaged students. Muyere also said that the school budget has increased due to COVID-19 and has become very unmanageable for a missionary school as they normally survive through the government grant. He said that they are expecting a supplementary subsidy from the government so that they can meet all the requirement of COVID-19 regulations. He stated that the region has also assisted by paying the school utilities bills and buying food for the day scholars and boarding students. When Yours Truly toured the school with Munyere later during the day, there were renovations ongoing preparing the school for the second batch of students in two weeks.
Passing through one of the classes near the staffroom, students were found receiving their Mathematics lesson and the same thing was also observed at both the Biology and Physics laboratories. The interesting part was that all the three teachers from the above-mentioned classes were putting on plastic face shields provided by the school so that they can cover their faces when demonstrating to the students.
On the other hand, all the students were wearing branded face cloth masks matching their school uniform. At the dining area with the school head, some of the students were found crowded in one place just outside the dining hall.
Munyere was quick to explain that the situation indicated that most of them were boarding students and they just finished their shift and had nowhere to go. For his part, the North East regional director of basic education, Labane Mokgosi confirmed that all the 84 schools in the region opened on June 1.
He said that one major challenge experienced by some schools is late coming by some students due to transport issues.
Mokgosi also indicated that they are encountering a problem of limited boarding space at MSC. He added: “We have requested porta cabins from the ministry so that we can address the issue of shortage of accommodation.”