In compliance with COVID-19 regulations, the DBE has resorted to host the 2021 Schools Moot Court Competition virtually from 6 to 10 October 2021.  As a result, the new virtual mode of participation for conducting the workshop and capacity building sessions were adopted to prepare participants for the National Championship. These included participants from the DBE, the Provincial Education Departments (PEDs), the private sector, teachers and learners. 

The marking and moderation of the national essays has already been completed. Smaller-scale face-to-face and virtual Schools Moot Court Competitions are currently underway at provincial level and will proceed until 18 September 2021. As part of the selection criteria, 10 teams consisting of four learners per province, have been considered. Therefore, each provincial panel is expected to select four teams for participation at the national level of the competition. During the national and provincial level of the competition, the provision of cellular data will be considered for all learners to participate virtually where necessary. 

Similarly, the Youth Citizens Action Programme (YCAP) 2021 has fully migrated after the successful virtual and online pilot in December 2020. The virtual workshops of the National Schools Moot Court and YCAP have had a positive knock-on effect for the potential migration of the iNkosi Albert Luthuli Oral History Programme 2021, as adopted in the Interprovincial Task Team Meeting of 23 August 2021. The virtual migration of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Parliament, the Heritage Education Schools Outreach Programme (HESOP) and the Schools Youth Camp have been difficult to pursue, due to the nature of the programmes that rely heavily on onsite interactions.