S.African Pupils Miss Meals As Virus Limits School Return

A steaming dish of milk and maize porridge interrupts an early-morning mathematics class in Sitoromo Junior Secondary School in South Africa's Eastern Cape province

Sterkspruit, South Africa, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th Jul, 2020 ) :A steaming dish of milk and maize porridge interrupts an early-morning mathematics class in Sitoromo Junior Secondary School in South Africa's Eastern Cape province.

A dozen hungry pupils dig their spoons into the brimming bowls as the sun slowly thaws the frosty meadows surrounding their town, Sterkspruit, tucked in the Maluti mountains across the border from Lesotho.

"There are children who are schooling here who rely mostly on the meals they get from school," said their principal, Thabang Letsoso.

Before the pandemic, around nine million children in South Africa's state-run schools received a meal per day as part of a government-led nutrition programme.

In impoverished rural communities, that meal often provides the bulk of a child's nutritional intake.

Schools that shut at the start of South Africa's coronavirus outbreak in March started gradually welcoming pupils back to class last month, with three more year groups allowed back from Monday.

But over the weekend, provincial authorities postponed the return date due to an "increase in the number of infections" across the Eastern Cape -- the country's third-worst-affected province.

The long disruption has not just affected the children's education in a poor rural area. It has also stoked concern about youngsters missing out on a crucial daily plate of hot food.

"Since March they have been staying at home, (where) nothing has been happening," Letsoso worried.

"Sometimes I think some of them (now) sleep without anything in their stomachs." At least one fifth of about 12 million learners have now been allowed to return to school across South Africa.

In the Eastern Cape this only applies to grade seven -- children aged around 13 -- and grade 12 students, aged around 17 or 18, who are working for their high-school diploma.

The next batch of grades are expected to resume class only later this month.

For Sitoromo that means 368 children will have been out of school for at least four months by the time they return to class.

Clad in a dark green uniform and face mask, grade seven student Yongama Rhini said she was relieved to be back.

"When I am at home I'm cleaning, after cleaning I'm cooking (and) after cooking we go to play and there is no social distancing there," the 13-year old told AFP during her lunch break.

Concerns about safety have grown, however, as over 150 Eastern Cape schools have reported coronavirus cases over the past month.

At least 270 learners and 271 staff have tested positive across the coastal province -- the highest in the country -- according to government figures.

Fifteen staffers and three pupils were reported dead over the weekend.

Sitoromo itself had just reopened from a two-week closure after a teacher caught coronavirus, stoking further distress among alarmed parents.