South Africa's biggest provincial education machine - the school system in KwaZulu-Natal - has been declared safe and ready for pupils on Monday, Premier Sihle Zikalala has said.
Monday will see the arrival of grades 7 and 12 pupils at most of the province's vast network of schools.
Of the total number of schools, 6 044 were ready to reopen "as they have met all the non-negotiables", Zikalala said, adding 142 were not yet ready - "but were working hard to prepare".
"Every learner, teacher will be screened as they enter the school premises and data captured temp, comorbidities and all critical information related to Covid-19," Zikalala added.
On Sunday, five teacher unions and four school governing body associations finally gave their blessing for schools to reopen this week after receiving a progress report that said 94% were ready, News24 reported.
