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Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act No. 57 of 2002)

Notices

Directions on a National Framework and Criteria for the management of the 2021 Academic Year in Public and Private Higher Education Institutions

4. Institutional Plans

 

4.1. All higher education institutions must develop plans for the opening of the 2021 academic year and the managed integration of staff and students to campuses and residences.

 

4.2. All institutions must ensure that a COVID-19 Response Task Team or other relevant management committee is in place, comprising all critical stakeholders and in line with health and safety regulations, to ensure responsiveness to ongoing issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 Response Task Team or other relevant management committee should monitor the implementation of institutional plans on an ongoing basis. The response teams should remain in place for the duration of the period of national disaster.

 

4.3. The access of staff and students to campus, contact tuition and to residences must be managed within the parameters of the applicable national Risk Alert Level regulations and the relevant Regulations, as published by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from time to time, together with the specific exceptions detailed in these directions. This means that institutional plans will be adapted from time to time in line with any changes announced at the national level.

 

4.4 Each institution must develop and implement a teaching and learning plan to ensure that physical distancing and other health protocols are observed at all times. This implies implementing blended learning methodologies, flipped classrooms, carousel and block contact teaching, and so on. The teaching and learning plan should ensure that all students are afforded the opportunity to participate meaningfully in teaching and learning.

 

4.5 Institutions must take the following key criteria into consideration in developing their plans:

 

4.5.1. Students and staff who are able to work remotely where reasonably practicable should be encouraged to do so as long as the pandemic is active and in alignment within the Risk Alert Level applicable at the time. In addition they should have the tools to work remotely.
4.5.2. As a principle, restrictions on the size of gatherings (including all classes and events) within indoor venues and outdoor venues must be managed within the terms of the Regulations published by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs from time to time. However, in terms of this direction, and where practically possible, each institution must determine the area of floor space in square metres of each venue and determine the number of students and employees that may be inside the venue, subject to a stipulated limitation of the floor space and subject to strict adherence to all health protocols and social distancing measures. Should the National Risk Alert Level Regulations applicable at the time, allow for utilising more than 50% of the floor space, institutions must follow the Regulations. This means that all universities will need to carefully manage face to face contact activities and continue using blended and remote teaching and learning methodologies, until these restrictions are lifted completely.
4.5.3. Events must align with the national Risk Alert Level Regulations applicable at the time.
4.5.4. No maximum percentage of students allowed on campuses or in residences is imposed at the national level, as each institution's spatial realities differ. Each institution needs to control access to campuses and residences in line with their respective carrying capacities and circumstances of national and local safety protocols.
4.5.5. Each institution should identify students who live in places that are not conducive to studying, or who lack connectivity, and wherever feasible, facilitate their accommodation in residences, whether on or off-campus. These students should be supported to engage in learning through blended learning processes at the institution, and be permitted to access campus when necessary for practical and other teaching/learning requirements, ensuring that strict COVID-19 health and safety protocols are in place. This needs to be managed at the appropriate institutional level with the proviso that such numbers can be safely accommodated in line with the relevant Regulations at that time.
4.5.6. Institutions must manage the process around identifying students who may be accommodated in residences and have access to campuses. Institutions must issue each student with a formal approval at the point of first return to access a campus or reside in a residence. This approval should define the conditions of this permission. No student or staff member should be permitted onto a campus or residence without this permission.
4.5.7. All institutions should implement strict health and safety protocols with the support of Higher Health. COVID-19 Health and Safety Committees, and other relevant institutional committees, should continue to operate and be vigilant to minimise the risks of super spreading events.
4.5.8. All institutional plans must meet the requirements of the health and safety directives published by the Department of Employment and Labour in Government Gazette No. 43751 of 01 October 2020, or later amendments that may follow.
4.5.9. Management of in-person examinations and assessments needs to be done with specific consideration to health and safety protocols. Higher Health has published protocols in this regard and these must be adhered to at all times. Emphasis needs to be on ensuring:
(a) Engineering controls: what can be done to the exam environment to reduce transmission, such as ensuring adequate cross ventilation and sufficient space in the venue.
(b) Administrative controls: what can be arranged to reduce transmission, such as COVID-19 screening, hand hygiene, cough etiquette and surface cleaning, disinfection,including environmental cleaning between each exam.
4.5.10. Further, the Higher Health protocol details preparation of the exam centre before, during and after the exam. In cases where physical attendance at an examination is necessary and large venues with good ventilation are available, the maximum number of individuals in the venue may be relaxed, provided that:
(a) There is at least a 1.5m distance between each examination table;
(b) All windows and doors remain open throughout;
(c) All students and staff in the venue wear masks at all times;
(d) Hand sanitisers are available on entry into the venue and that all individuals entering the venue are screened;
(e) Not more than 50% of the venue capacity is exceeded;
(f) After the exam, the invigilator should transport boxes of scripts to a designated secure storage site for quarantine overnight. The scripts can be sent to examiners for marking after a minimum of 12 hours.
4.5.11. All students residing in HEI residences and accommodation should sign an agreement that they commit to safe behaviour and will not participate in off-campus activities that are risky during the time that the Regulations are still in force. There should be a complete ban on all social gatherings at all institutions when Alert Levels 5, 4 and 3 have been declared, either nationally or in specified hotspots. This may be relaxed under Levels 2 and 1 lockdown regulations and aligned with the Risk Alert Level applicable at the time.
4.5.12. Institutions must have clear protocols and alternative work and study arrangements for those staff members and students who may be more vulnerable to the virus because of age and/or comorbidities and are, therefore, unable to attend activities in person.
4.5.13. There may be constraints in accommodating all staff on HEI campuses due to various reasons, including risk related to age and/or comorbidities, shared office spaces and so on. Each HEI should determine which staff need to return based on their academic and operational requirements and where necessary, consider a range of options such as bringing back staff on rotation and allowing for those who can function remotely to continue to do so.