Grading government’s back-to-school plan

The government is poised to make a huge mistake in how it reopens schools. Instead of its endless prevarication and plan to start with the oldest children first, government should allow schools to be among the first places to reopen — and should begin with the youngest children.

This is the emerging consensus, according to international research literature. It is also an obvious approach to adopt in SA, given the country’s huge educational inequalities and backlogs...