Stress endured by pupils during pandemic could have lasting effect: Fedsas
The stress that schoolchildren have come under during the Covid-19 pandemic could potentially affect them for years to come.
That's according to the Federation of School Governing Bodies (Fedsas), which says the pressure on pupils is unprecedented.
Fedsas has been commenting on the country's school dropout figures.
The Basic Education Department says about 10 000 learners of compulsory school-going age are not in the classroom.
It says 80% of learning was lost last year.
That figure - for a large portion of learners - stands at 50% in 2021.
READ: Concern over alarming school dropout rate in South Africa
The Federation's Jaco Deacon says they are worried about the long-term negative effects on pupils.
"The effect of Covid is obviously not only a financial effect, but an emotional effect as well for some learners and the fact that they are on a rotation base doesn't really help.
"And learners lost hope and they started dropping out, especially if they don't have good and quality support back at home to motivate them to go to school and obviously those schools who eventually stopped with the learner feeding schemes because the children don't show up. So it's indeed a national crisis and we are really concern."
