The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande remarks on the occasion of the release of the results of the social impact study on COVID-19 amongst the PSET Sector
Professor Chris Nhlapo and CPUT Executive Management;
Professor Ahluwalia and the HIGHER HEALTH family;
Professor Crain Soudien, Professor Sibusiso Sifunda and members of the HSRC study team;
Our Student and Staff communities;
Esteemed guests;
Members of the media;
Ladies and gentlemen
I greet you all this morning two days away to the 45th Youth Day commemoration, which will be celebrated under the theme linked to Charlotte Maxeke’s 150th birthday anniversary, “The Year of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke: Growing youth employment for an inclusive and transformed society”
For many of our generation and some of the younger compatriots the memory of 16 June 1976 burning fresh in our minds as if it happened yesterday.
Forty-five years ago, thousands of students around the country – from Soweto to KwaMashu, to Gugulethu, to Port Elizabeth, to Makhado – rose up against oppression.
In their school uniforms, their fists in the air, and their faces bright with the fire of resistance, they confronted the heavily armed police singing: “Senzeni na? What have we done?”
Today, we meet to release the results of a social impact study on yet another oppressive challenge, this time, a health pandemic – to the youth of our country.
As we commemorate Youth month the country and the world continue to grapple with COVID-19.
We understand the challenges we face today much better than we did during the first year and the first and second waves of the pandemic.
This has in good part to the leadership and tireless efforts of our health, wellness and development agency, HIGHER HEALTH, which has developed a holistic, integrated, science-based response for the PSET sector.
We have made important and valuable investments into becoming ready to address a health crisis of this nature.
When we have to deal with another similar situation in the future, we will be able to apply valuable lessons learned through this process.
Importantly, when embarking on the COVID response, HIGHER HEALTH was able to put to good use the knowledge, experience and student and staff networks that it created over nearly two decades while working in the PSET sector.
This is a wealth of knowledge and expertise that helped us to address HIV, TB, STIs, sexual and reproductive health like contraception and other health and wellness needs in all our campuses.
In collaboration with other experts, scientists and stakeholders, especially World Health Organisation (WHO), National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), our sister Department of Health, and other agencies, HIGHER HEALTH formulated comprehensive programmes, systems, controls and infrastructure to respond to COVID 19.
This was done through guidelines, protocols and capacity building grounded in latest epidemiological data, for the management of COVID-19 in PSET institutions and centres.
Specifically, HIGHER HEALTH established various Scientific Technical Task Teams, that helped to develop nine sets of protocols and guidelines for the management of COVID-19 in PSET institutions and centres.
I have released these comprehensive COVID-19 PSET Guidelines as early as April 2020, which were followed by specific protocols, checklists, and interventions.
These interventions were rolled out in all our universities, TVET and CET Colleges, including Private Higher Education Institutions and Skills-Based Centres.
The interventions also tracked the pandemic and aligned with overarching national policies, preparing the PSET sector for a phased re-opening of campuses and contact learning.
Institutional management was tasked with establishing COVID-19 task and campus-based implementation teams, and with HIGHER HEALTH infrastructure, controls, compliance, systems, rigorous trainings, and other support mechanisms were initiated at every campus level.
To this end, HIGHER HEALTH capacitated and built through numerous online and in-person training sessions a network of over 49 000 capacitated individuals, that includes our frontline staff, student support staff (including residence, wardens, and support staff), management, across all our campuses.
These individuals have a science-based understanding of the COVID-19 virus and are able to recognise and appropriately manage this pandemic within our institutions.
Among these capacitated individuals, are over 12 000 student volunteers that have been working with HIGHER HEALTH on the COVID response.
I would like to commend and thank these student volunteers for their selfless support during this difficult period and call upon them to persevere and continuously assist the sector as the pandemic continues.
My Deputy Minister, Mr Buti Manamela, has recently recognised these brave student volunteers, who have been developed by HIGHER HEALTH and have now graduated as COVID-19 Warriors.
In pursuit of this goal, all COVID protocols, guidelines and training materials were updated in line with the evolving scientific advancements, which enabled us to retrain management and frontline teams ahead of the re-opening of institutions for the 2021 academic year.
Ladies and gentlemen
In my role as the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, I stand behind scientific advancement and South Africa’s continued efforts to expand the generation and application of knowledge and evidence.
In these times of fake news and misinformation, it is our duty to use the PSET system talents, skills, infrastructure and resources to deepen our student and staff understanding about COVID-19.
I am therefore very appreciative that HIGHER HEALTH and HSRC, through the support from DHET, DSI and UNFPA, have undertaken a study on the Social Impact of COVID-19 among Post School Education and Training (PSET) Sector youth in South Africa.
HIGHER HEALTH partnered with the HSRC to generate and provide evidence on the education-related, physical and psychosocial effects of the pandemic on South African post schooling education students. It is pleasing that 13 119 youth between the ages of 18-35 years, from all our universities, TVETs, CETs private HEI and centres, responded to the survey questions.
The survey explored young people’s experiences and perspectives on the social impact of COVID-19 on education and learning in South Africa.
This included gathering of knowledge, attitudes and perceptions (KAP) of youth regarding COVID-19, understanding and modifying potential maladaptive and self-destructive behaviours, and the impact of COVID-19 on education and learning.
From the results we understand that frequently used sources of information on COVID-19 accessed by students were government sources, news websites/apps and social media. Knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and prevention was high.
Therefore, it is important for institutions and HIGHER HEALTH to continue to be sources of correct and consistent information, so that students are empowered with knowledge.
From the results we know that 53% thought they were at low risk of contracting COVID-19 and 15% perceived themselves as high risk.
This reinforces that it is important for students to understand that they are in fact carriers of the virus and whilst they may be asymptomatic, they are at risk of transmitting to their parents and elderly grandparents.
Again, students must be consistently reminded of to practice the basic prevention methods for COVID-19
42% thought they would be able to cope with their workload after lockdown, with older students being more confident than younger ones.
The majority (79%) felt that students should get routine counselling support during the pandemic. It was for this reason that I instructed HIGHER HEALTH to establish the 24 hour tollfree helpline.
Similarly, such psychosocial support must be used by our students for counselling for personal problems, study motivation, psychological support, among other. I again urge students to reach out for help.
As much as we were aware and remain cognisant of the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on our students, the study results have confirmed that conditions during lockdown impacted on internet connectivity; access to devices, data and study material; lesser study time; ability to pay rent; financial struggles; food security and hunger; loss of social contact; loss of family members; access to transport, medical care and chronic medication; among others.
I am pleased to hear that students received support from their institutions in the areas of online learning, provision of data free bundles and data free access to the online learning platform and the university website.
I empathise with our students for the challenges that they faced during hard lockdown and the challenges that they continue to face.
We have led the COVID-19 impact study which provides crucial data and learnings that will help to inform how we bring this pandemic to its end – and become stronger when a similar, serious public health emergency happens in the future.
As we have access to new data on the coronavirus including its mutations and the implications this has for biomedical and behavioural responses to it, HIGHER HEALTH has created a PSET vaccination strategy that is aligned with and supports Department of Health’s phased national strategy and coordinate its subsequent roll out.
The strategy will help to ensure access to vaccination for our students and staff, as vaccinations become available for our sector.
HIGHER HEALTH is also working closely with other sister government departments to build a Health Department-approved training programme for the PSET sector for a science-based awareness and education initiative on the national COVID vaccination drive.
We will train thousands of our peer educators and student volunteers, with support from student leadership and our staff, to render knowledge, education and information to support the massive countrywide vaccination drive.
On 27 January 2021, I urged our institutions and Higher Health to mobilise and capacitate our own healthcare workers, staff and final-year health science students to volunteer to be trained and act as extra hands supporting the Department of Health, as it is impossible for 40 million people to be vaccinated by a single department.
I am very proud of CPUT, UWC and NMU, for taking on the responsibility to become accredited vaccination sites, in a bid to support the national vaccination roll-out programme.
I urge more institutions to become vaccination outreach sites and welcome the support from Department of Health to assist our institutions to become vaccination outreach sites, where possible.
Institutions that can become outreach vaccination sites rather than primary vaccinations sites will be able to leverage of the Department of Health to minimise initial set up and logistics costs.
I also commend our institutions and HIGHER HEALTH who has mobilised and capacitated our own healthcare workers, staff and final-year health science students who have volunteered and trained to act as extra hands supporting the Department of Health.
It is really heartening to hear that CPUT started vaccination on 7 June 2021, with 60 vaccines per day and already started scaling up to 120 per day. More significantly CPUT is providing vaccinations to our pensioners, local community.
So, I take this opportunity to thank:
- CPUT and all our institutions for their daily contributions towards managing the pandemic;
- Prof Ahluwalia, Prof Soudien, HIGHER HEALTH and HSRC for undertaking the study. I encourage you to continue with more research interventions that will inform and further guide our work on not just COVID-19 but other epidemics such as GBV, HIV, Substance Abuse and Mental Health, that plagues our Youth;
- Our COVID-19 Warriors and call on our institutions, our two-million-or-more strong family to mobilise, to volunteer to be trained and act as extra hands in facilitating a smooth rollout of the vaccines to our people; and
- Prof Nhlapo, we are grateful for your leadership, and I am looking forward to visiting the vaccination site – I wish you and all your students and staff much success in this very important national effort.
In closing, I would like to remind all of us that the key principles of beating COVID have not changed: social distancing; minimising personal contact; wearing a mask; sanitising and now vaccinating.
These behaviours that we had to adopt since the onset of the pandemic remain the most powerful, evidence-based means to eradicate COVID-19.
These practices have not come easy, and it is understandable that we feel we have had enough of them.
A social compact at every level, within our sector will go a long way towards fighting COVID-19, not only in our sector but within communities as well.
Please do not tire, do not waver. We are making progress, but our fight has not yet been won until we can refocus all our energies on advancing knowledge and education as the foundation of sustainable development and transformation of our country.
We are a resilient nation. We are a hopeful nation.
Thank you
