Rebooting the South African education system amidst Covid-19: Impediments and improvement strategies

Hlengani Baloyi
University of Venda, South Africa
Godwin Khosa
National Education Collaboration Trust, South Africa

Given the substantial loss of teaching and learning time during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, the key pressure point for the South African education system and many other schooling systems across the world was to re-open schooling. Drawing on data from key education stakeholders in South Africa, this article uses qualitative research methods to identify some of the success and impeding factors experienced by the South African education system in its quest to return all schools to full functionality during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, we suggest some of the strategies that can assist schools to return to full functionality and to build the resilience of schooling systems after the Covid-19 pandemic and before future pandemics. This article finds that there were both success and impeding factors that schools experienced in the task of returning to full functionality. Success factors included the availability of adequate classrooms, strict adherence to Covid-19 health protocols, a smaller number of learners in classes, and cooperation between parents, members of school governing bodies and the community. Impeding factors included limited classroom space, large enrolments, and a shortage of teachers.
[ PDF full text for this article ]

Authors: Hlengani Baloyi is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Legislative Research and Advocacy, University of Venda, South Africa. With over a decade of research experience in both the education and legislative sectors, Hlengani has authored a few journal articles, co-authoured a number of research reports and contributed to the writing of a few books. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6160-8517 Email: hlengani.baloyi@univen.ac.za Godwin Khosa is the chief executive officer of the National Education Collaboration Trust, South Africa, and a doctoral student at the University of Sussex, UK. He has managed a wide range of education policy processes, organisations, and large-scale education research and improvement initiatives in South Africa. Email: godwink@nect.org.za Please cite as: Baloyi, H. & Khosa, G. (2022). Rebooting the South African education system amidst Covid-19: Impediments and improvement strategies. Issues in Educational Research, 32(4), 1272-1289. http://www.iier.org.au/iier32/baloyi.pdf