COVID-19 and school teachers in South Africa: Interfacing SDG3 (Health and Wellbeing) and SDG4 (Quality Education)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic destabilised the education sector worldwide exposing teachers to significant health risks, while disrupting their core responsibilities. This study explores how the COVID-19 impacted the health, wellbeing and professional responsibilities of educators in South Africa's Limpopo Province, thereby challenging progress toward good health and well-being and quality education as outlined in Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 4, respectively. A mixed methods approach was adopted. This included a teacher survey (n = 226) administered in 39 schools via the QuestionPro platform, complemented by key informant interviews (n = 14) mainly from school managers, and analysed with ATLAS.ti, was used. The findings reveal that most teachers were fully vaccinated. Regarding the impact of COVID-19 on work and productivity, most of the respondents strongly agreed that the pandemic had a negative impact. Teachers had a fear of interacting with the learners due to the health risks. Although COVID-19 had subsided by the time this study was completed in December 2023, the authorities still needed to continue rolling out support systems to teachers that had been impacted by the pandemic. Therefore, long-term disaster risk and management strategies for school educators are recommended and these should be developed in consultation with teachers who experienced COVID-19 first hand.