SA school holiday calendar: Big changes may be coming

There may be changes on the horizon for school holidays as the Department of Basic Education published proposed changes to the National Policy for Determining School Calendars for Public Schools in South Africa for public comment.

THE CHANGES COME AS A RESULT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The changes are being suggested as a result of the past three years of disruptions to the school calendar due to Covid-19. This will, in turn, give the minister of education and the Department of Basic Education more flexibility at the start and end of school terms. This will also apply to changes to the different terms for coastal and inland schools.

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The big changes include the fourth term must end in the first week of December, removing specific mention of months where terms should end to add workability and better integration of school holidays.

It will also see a staggered calendar, allowing more religious holidays for minority learners, allowing the deviation on an urgent basis in response to disasters or exceptional circumstances, and allowing for approved changes to be announced and disseminated through social media (this was previously only allowed in newspapers).

MORE RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS HAVE BEEN ADDED

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To date, South African schools have implemented a staggered calendar, where coastal schools start the new school year a week after inland schools. As a result, coastal schools have a shorter holiday at the end of the first term.

In 2024 and 2025, the department plans for both coastal and inland schools to start the new school year on the same date. The department says: “Seeing that the timing of school holidays could have an effect on traffic flow, which, in turn, has potential road safety implications, the Department should plan the school calendar in a way that will assist in minimising traffic flow relating to school holidays.”

BOTH COASTAL AND INLAND SCHOOLS ARE TO START THE NEW YEAR ON THE SAME DATE

“The aim is to allocate different dates to the two clusters in the first term so that traffic density before the opening of schools for the new school year is kept within acceptable levels.”

The Department

The department says: “Seeing that the timing of school holidays could have an effect on traffic flow, which, in turn, has potential road safety implications, the Department should plan the school calendar in a way that will assist in minimising traffic flow relating to school holidays.” It further added the aim is to allocate different dates to the two clusters in the first term so that traffic density before the opening of schools for the new school year is kept within acceptable levels.

ANOTHER ISSUE IS THAT OF PUBLIC HOLIDAYS

Another change already confirmed for 2024 – and proposed for future calendars – is to ensure that school holidays are linked to as many public holidays as possible to maximise school time.

Although the dates of the Easter weekend differ from year to year, the department said:

“That every effort must be made, where possible, to have the Easter weekend fall within the school holiday in order to prevent disruption of the teaching and learning programme.”

The Department

If a long weekend begins on a public holiday that falls on a Friday, and such a weekend coincides with the beginning of the school holidays, schools must close on Wednesday and not on Thursday.

If a public holiday falls on the first Monday of the school holidays, schools must close on the previous Thursday and not on Friday.

The department adds that when the calendar is set out, every effort must be made to ensure that there are no public holidays during the first or last week of a school term.

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PROVISION HAS BEEN FOR RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS

Schools, where the majority of learners are of a particular faith, may close for a maximum of two days of the year to observe religious days. This policy remains unchanged.

However, where learners are part of a minority religious group, the new proposals want to remove the two-day limit to avoid any Constitutional conflict. This will mean that there will be no setting of limits for the number of days a student can take off for religious reasons.

“The Constitution provides that (these learners) may not be disadvantaged or discriminated against in any way,” the department said.

If a school closes for a religious holiday, it is up to that school to ensure that all learners make up for the work that is missed.

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This article was originally published by Angeline Schwan.