I, Dr BE Nzimande, MP, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, in terms of the COVID -19 Regulations of the Disaster Management Act, No 57 of 2002, hereby publish the Directions regarding the national framework and criteria for the management of the 2021 academic year in public and private higher education institutions, as set out in the Schedule.

These Directions come into effect on the date of publication of this Notice in the Government Gazette.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the President declaring a state of disaster in South Africa. Government implemented a national lockdown from 27 March 2020. All post school education and training institutions advanced their recess periods from the 16 March 2020 and subsequently closed their campuses and learning centres and moved to emergency remote teaching, learning and assessment. Directions on the risk -adjusted strategy for public and private higher education institutions to return to campuses during the various levels of the 2020 lockdown were published in the Government Gazette on the 8 June 2020. Students and staff were able to return to campuses at different periods of the lockdown as guided by the directions. Public Higher Education Institutions (universities) and Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) successfully completed the 2020 academic year, utilising a range of different teaching and learning methodologies.

The Department supported university responses to the crisis through the allocation of  a COVID-19 Responsiveness Grant (CRG) and monitored university responses through reports that  were initially submitted fortnightly and then monthly by the universities.

Herewith please find additional resources made available in the Government Gazette including guidelines and protocols as supplied by Higher Health:

• Guideline on the Management of COVID -19 within PSET Institutions
  
• Guideline on Managing Mental Health and Substance Abuse in relation to COVID -19
  
• Protocol for Screening, Testing, Contact Tracing, Self- Isolation, and Linkage to Care for the COVID -19 programme within the Post School Education & Training (PSET) Sector.
  
• Protocol on Routine Cleaning for COVID -19 Prevention at Post School Education & Training (PSET) institutions
  
• Protocol Post a Positive Covid-19 Test
  
• Protocol on managing cluster outbreaks within PSET institutions. This contains five COVID -19 scenarios which PSET administrators might have to manage. These range from those that occur at an individual level and pose a relatively low risk, to cluster outbreaks of many students and staff becoming positive in a short time -frame that may carry very high risks to the entire campus's health and wellness staff and student community.
  

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• Admin control center module: Track the status of your facilities to welcome your staff back to a safer office space. This dashboard empowers top-level management to assess the preparedness of facilities better, view individual employee health statuses, and decide on the right course of action to be taken. 
• Wellness module: Circulate and collect self-assessment and contact tracing forms among employees and oversee institution-wide information about their health status. This module provides industry-approved surveys, and organizations can decide the frequency of employees taking it based on company policy.
• Safe entry module:  Study employee self assessments, segregate the high-risk and low-risk crowds, and determine which employees are ready to work from the office. You can also gather and evaluate entry requests from employees and visitors using this module.
• Volunteer module: Organize and execute volunteer drives to give back to the community. As business entities and individuals, we’re all indebted to the communities around us, and this module allows institutions to recruit employees and coordinate volunteering activities.
• Communications module: Share guidelines, best practices, and frameworks with your staff, right to their phones. This module lets institutions compile, design, and circulate health and hygiene-related materials, FAQs, and announcements in a coordinated manner, over web and mobile devices.
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