The Basic Education Education Department says updated protocols have been put in place to prevent Covid-19 infections as schools return to maximum capacity from Monday.
Rotational learning and one-metre social distancing have been scrapped.
Minister Angie Motshekga has outlined how the full-time return to school will happen, and what is expected from teachers.
“What we agreed with the provinces, they have to do whatever it takes that to have the environment safe, work out that there are no infections, there’s no crowding of children,” she said.
“Other measures, for instance, there are different access gates normally we open one gate, we are saying open more than one gate so that there is no crowding.”
Motshekga also said that the key to recovery was to prevent further disruptions at schools.
“We do want everyone in the sector to vaccinate because we’re told that, of the 7.7 million qualifying pupils, 1.2 million have been vaccinated and in the past 24 hours, 15,000 young people have been vaccinated. But we call on parents to encourage young people to qualify to go for vaccination,” Motshekga said.
The minister said that vaccination would also quell fears of surging infections as classes could once again become overcrowded in some schools.
The department said that it would also be rolling out curriculum recovery plans to make up for the time lost.