Verticals

The education revolution

Wits, like institutions all over the world, had to pivot to online education in a matter of weeks. Along the way, it learned a few lessons.

22 September 2020

Wits students received their first email from the university about Covid-19 in the early evening of the first Friday in March. They were told that the university’s executive team had been monitoring the outbreak since early January and were mulling the best practices for managing the virus ‘if it reaches the Wits community’. There was a plan, said the mail, which ‘could’ be implemented if the university had to ‘shut down for a short period’.

Another mail on March 12 said there was no need to panic, and that ‘all 13’ cases in the country were mild ones. It also advised students to wash their hands for the length it took to sing Happy Birthday twice. It also wasn’t necessary for everyone to wear a mask, other than those who were coughing or sneezing.

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