The Department of Basic Education said that South Africa’s schools have lost a significant amount of teaching time this year after starting the school year several weeks late in February and several days late in June due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Basic Education spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, said that the government was now weighing up its options to compensate for lost teaching time. Mhlanga said that the five school days lost in June and July due to the level 4 lockdown have to be made up or they will be completely lost and schools could face the possibility of not completing their curriculums.
To address this, Mhlanga said that one proposal would see the October holiday period scrapped to make up for this time as under the current 2021 school calendar government school students are on holiday from 1 October until 11 October. Scrapping this holiday would give students an additional week of teaching time from 4 to 8 October.
“If we need to recover the five days somewhere, and possibly in October, it was going to be a problem because we are going to be able to recover them anyway. We said we need to do away with the holiday in October, and the unions and governing bodies opposed that, but the matter is still on the table.” Mhlanga also said that education unions have opposed this move but that the option remains on the table as consultations continue this week.
He added that the government was still considering formal objections and suggestions from these unions, with an official announcement set to be made soon.
Sources: Business Tech
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