Student Union of Namibia (SUN) national spokesperson, Tyson Hihanguapo said the current high COVID-19 infection rates among learners and teachers warrant an urgent closure of schools across the country.

Hihanguapo said this in a media statement issued Friday while reacting to the highest number of daily infections at 1 045 recorded on Thursday.

He said SUN is gravely worried about the uncontrollable spike in COVID-19 cases in the past week, and acknowledged the reality that the country has entered the third wave of COVID-19.

“The basic education fraternity is one of the affected sectors, with the painful death of a 14-year-old Grade 8 learner from Hage Geingob High School in Windhoek,” he noted.

SUN said 17 per cent of positive cases recorded is between the ages of five to 19, a clear message that the safety and wellbeing of learners are at risk with the current mode of face-to-face teaching.

“It is in light of the above information that we call for the closure of schools across the country for the whole of June over the concerns of death and the rising COVID-19 cases.”

Hihanguapo added that they wrote a letter to Minister of Education, Arts and Culture Anna Nghipondoka, requesting her to suspend face-to-face teaching as an urgent action and for schools to utilise online facilities and other home-based teaching facilitation whilst stakeholders discuss the way forward for teaching to continue without risking the lives of the learners.

On Thursday, Nghipondoka told Nampa the schools calendar will not be interrupted by closing schools countrywide, because it is more risky in terms of social factors when children are at home than at schools.

Source: Namibia Press Agency