The minister hosted the 21st National Teaching Awards on Wednesday, recognising the teachers who had taken initiatives to help children cope with online learning during the pandemic and making sure that they did not fall behind.
The Annual National Teaching Awards event in Kempton Park on Wednesday was attended by President Cyril Ramaphosa where teachers were praised for helping children despite facing their own challenges amid the pandemic. online.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said that now was the time that teachers rebooted and rebuilt the education sector which had suffered a huge blow due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Motshekga said that COVID-19 had been giving teachers “sleepless nights” as they realised that if the quality of education dropped, it could create a huge regress for the entire country.
President Cyril Ramphosa, who also attended the awards ceremony, was extremely concerned about the high dropout rate and challenged teachers to ensure that at least 75% of this year’s pupils stayed in school.
“It is a common good and what you are doing, you are contributing towards a common good – it doesn’t have lots of money,” the minister said.
Ramaphosa said as the education sector was changing rapidly into online learning and teaching, teachers had a huge responsibility to make sure children didn’t drop out of school.
This Covid 19 awareness article was produced with the Journalists for Human Rights support.
