Department of Education releases new school calendar: Holidays reduced
- The Department of Basic Education has published the school calendar amid the Covid-19 pandemic
- The 2020 school year will officially be coming to an end on December 15 according to the latest gazette
- The number of school holidays has been greatly reduced, with only 13 days excluding public holidays set aside
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The Basic Education Department has released the new school calendar in light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The department had issued a gazette on the matter, announcing that the school year will officially end on December 15.
The document detailed how there would only be 13 days of school holidays between now and the end of 2020, not counting public holidays.
According to the gazette, the school year will now be as follows:
- Term 1: Jan 15 – March 18;
- Term 2: June 8 – August 7;
- term 3: August 12 - September 23; and
- term 4: October 5 – December 15
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Briefly.co.za reported that South African schools had reopened this week, seeing the return of Grade 12 and 7 students.
The rest of the classes are expected to return over the course of the next two months with the entire ordeal postponed for a week after it was determined that not all schools were ready.
Despite this delay, Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga told SowetenLIVE that the department expects the return of other grades to go down successfully:
"The reopening of schools this week will help in giving the sector a sense of what it will take to receive the next cohort of learners. Our monitoring does indicate that schools will be in a position to manage the return of the other grades."
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Source: Briefly News
