- The Western Cape Education Department has given teachers and non-teaching staff who've been working from home until 28 September to return to school.
- The WCED has given its teachers an extra week to report to school following the basic education department's decision to have teachers return to school on 21 September.
- A process will follow for teachers with comorbidities.
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has given teachers and non-teaching staff who've been working from home due to Covid-19 until 28 September to return to school.
The provincial department said a letter to all principals and teachers was sent on 18 September at 12:30 notifying all staff who had been working from home that they should report back to school.
"The WCED had decided that all affected staff members (teachers and non-teaching staff) who have been granted such a concession to work from home temporarily, must now return to work as required, but in the interests of reasonableness, it was decided that all such staff members must be back at work by no later than Monday 28 September 2020," WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said.
On Sunday, the Department of Basic Education announced that all teachers who were granted permission to work from home due to Covid-19, were expected to report for duty on Monday 21 September.
Hammond said this was in line with the terms of the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) Collective Agreement 1 of 2020 and WCED Circular 0015 of 2020.
The letter was written following the president's announcement of the decision to further downgrade the Covid-19 lockdown to Alert Level 1.
Hammond said a process will follow for teachers with comorbidities.
"Schools were also informed that Teaching Assistants that have been employed temporarily to assist teachers with comorbidities that their contracts will terminate on 30 September 2020, as was communicated previously with regards to the downgrade to Level 1," she added.
Substitute teachers will not be affected by the department's decision.
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