Annisa Essack | kzn@radioislam.org.za
9 May 2023 | 06:00 CAT
3 min read

Photo Caption: WORDCRAFTBY ANNISA

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has proposed changes to the 2024 academic school calendar, giving it a radical new look. The public has until 4 June 2023 to comment on the gazetted amendments to the National Policy for Determining School Calendars for Public Schools in South Africa.

The changes come after three years of school disruptions due to the COVID-19 -19 pandemic. It will also give the Minister of Education and the Department more flexibility in determining each term’s opening and closing times and mitigating differences between coastal and inland schools.

The major amendments include:

• The fourth term must end in the first week of December instead of the second week, as was previously the case;
• Removing specific mention of months when terms should end for added flexibility;
• Better integration of public holidays;
• Adding that a staggered calendar can still be implemented;
• Allowing for more religious holidays for minority learners (previously, the maximum was two days);
• Allowing for deviations on an urgent basis in response to disasters or exceptional circumstances;
• Allowing for approved changes to be announced and disseminated through social media (previously, this was only allowed in newspapers).

A staggered calendar is used, where coastal schools start the new year a week after inland schools, giving coastal schools a shorter holiday at the end of the first term than inland schools, synchronising for the rest of the year. However, in the confirmed school calendar for 2024 and continuing in 2025 and 2026, the department plans for schools in coastal and inland regions to start and end simultaneously.

But, the department’s proposed changes do not eliminate the staggered calendar, as this would indirectly impact tourism, road safety and traffic, which, in turn, has potential road safety implications.

Another change already confirmed for 2024 and recommended for future calendars to maximise school time is to ensure that school holidays are linked with as many public holidays as possible. With Easter weekend dates differing from year to year, the department said that every effort would be made to have the Easter weekend fall within the school holiday to prevent disruption of the teaching and learning programme.

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

When the calendar is planned, the department says every effort must be made to ensure no public holiday during the first or last week of a school term. Where a public holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the Monday before or the Friday after the public holiday must be declared a school holiday.

If, owing to public and school holidays in April, a week has only two school days, those two days must be declared school holidays to avoid disrupting the teaching and learning programme.

Regarding religious holidays, the department is pushing for more religious holidays in the year for individual learners.

The policy remains unchanged for schools where most learners are of a particular faith. The school may close for a maximum of two days of the year to observe holy days. 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 – setting no limit on the number of days a student can take off for religious reasons if they are in a minority religious group.

If a school closes for a religious holiday, it is up to that school to ensure that all learners catch up on the missed work. For minority learners, it is up to them to catch up on the work they miss due to them taking time off.

However, schools may not plan exams or assessments on these days, and minority learners must inform the school within the first ten days of the year in writing of their intention to take specific days off for this purpose.

Stakeholders have until 4 June to comment on the proposals.