Sterkspruit (South Africa) (AFP)
In a jiffy, the students cleared their notebooks to make way for steaming bowls filled with porridge which they devour with full spoonfuls. In this South African college, it's breakfast time, perhaps the most important of the day.
"Some children here only eat the meals they receive at school," said Thabang Letsoso, the principal of Sitoromo college, in the small rural town of Sterkspruit (south) in the Eastern Cape province.
The coronavirus pandemic has closed schools across South Africa for more than two months and deprived their 12 million students of classes, classmates and, for the poorest, their only hot meal of the day.
Across the country, those at two levels - the equivalent of the 12th grade and the 5th grade - returned to school in June.
But the strong progression of the disease - the country has crossed the bar of 200,000 cases and 3,000 deaths - has forced the authorities to delay the scheduled return to school for other students in the most affected regions.
This is the case in the Eastern Cape, where the next stage of recovery is now not scheduled before July 20. For the Sitoromo college in Sterkspruit alone, 368 students will have been deprived of school for four months.
"Since March they have been at home, where absolutely nothing has happened," regrets the principal Letsoso, "and I know that sometimes some people go to bed hungry."
Before the pandemic, some 9 million pupils in South African public schools benefited from a free meal per day subsidized by the government. Confinement effectively interrupted it, without any other program replacing it.
According to a recent survey carried out by the NGO Equal Education, more than a third of the pupils have found it difficult to eat since the schools closed.
So to say that Nondabezitha Sikunya was delighted to see her 12-year-old granddaughter find her way back to Sitoromo college.
- "Best setting" -
"At least when she comes back from school, she is not hungry," notes the 55-year-old grandmother, whose meager salary as a community worker is not enough to boil the family pot.
Threatened by a legal complaint from this association, the Minister of Education Angie Motshekga announced the rapid implementation of initiatives to "feed students who have not been able to return to school".
The impact of containment on the food security of young people is such that many experts consider it more serious than the risk of contracting Covid-19.
"School is a better place for parents who have to go back to work and worry about what will happen to their children," said Mignon McCulloch, President of the South African Pediatric Association, recalling the limited effects of the coronavirus on the young.
"If you have schools where children wear masks, wash their hands (...) and keep their distance, at least they can benefit from some education and food there," she adds. .
Provided however that they can reopen schools safely, which is not the case in the province.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 270 students and 271 teachers or administrators have been tested positive for Covid-19 in some 150 schools in the Eastern Cape, according to statistics released last week by the authorities.
The Sitoromo college itself did not save. Closed two weeks ago following a case of contamination among its staff, it did not reopen until Monday.
And in conditions complicated by the arson which, last year, destroyed part of the school and forced the school headmaster to drag 400 shoes in only 7 classes.
"The Covid-19 has only added to this tragedy," sighs economics professor Letlotlo Motsoeneng, "we don't know where we are going to put everyone and we are very worried about our health".
© 2020 AFP