The National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) wants the reopening of schools to be pushed to next month.
Public schools are supposed to open on 27 January but the NCCC wants to push it to 15 February. The NCCC hopes that by then the second wave of Covid-19 infections would have started to decline.
A number of independent schools reopened on Wednesday, while the majority are expected to reopen next week.
Education sector groups met with the Department of Basic Education on Wednesday night, when the decision by the NCCC was communicated to them.
It appears that stakeholders may have differing views on the proposal to keep schools closed.
"In principle our position was that schools, based on the experiences from last year, are safer for children because they are under control and can be supervised better than being out in the streets. The indications are that things might have changed. We don't have the medical expertise and are not quite sure about the readiness of all provinces to reopen and we don't know how many teachers may be infected. We've had a high infection rate in the teacher cohort during the holidays," said Paul Colditz, CEO of the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools.
The South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) said it has always been calling for schools to reopen only once the second wave has passed.
"This is what we've been advocating for. We need to make sure that before schools open the numbers are declining. We don't open when the numbers are not declining," said Mugwena Maluleke, Sadtu general secretary.
The head of the Independent Schools Association of South Africa Lebogang Montjane also confirmed the NCCC's plan to News24 on Thursday.
This is developing story. More to follow.
- Additional reporting Sesona Ngqakamba