Image: Thulani Mbele
The school year will officially come to a close on December 15, according to a government gazette published on Thursday.
The basic education department said in the document that there would also be just 13 days of school holidays between now and the end of the year, excluding public holidays.term 1: Jan 15 – March 18;
term 2: June 8 (postponed from June 1) – August 7;
term 3: August 12 – September 23; and
term 4: October 5 – December 15
Schools reopened on Monday after being closed due to the national lockdown. However, only grade 12 and 7 pupils – the school-leaving grades – have returned. Other grades are to be phased in over the next two months.
The grade 12 and 7 pupils were meant to go back on June 1, but schools were deemed not ready and the return delayed a week.
Asked whether, in the light of the delays, the education department was confident that the other classes’ return would be successful, spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said: “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.”