WILMOT JAMES: SA schools without a teaching alternative is not ideal

SA sent 11.2-million school-going children home because of Covid-19. Only a compelling public health reason such as a pandemic can justify closing schools.

Children have a peremptory, constitutional right to primary and secondary schooling. Interrupting schooling should never be done lightly, especially in a country such as SA that has tragically struggled — without much success — to get even close to the achievements obtained by its peers in the developing world...