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Angie Motshekga ponders academic calendar

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Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. Picture: Daily Sun
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga. Picture: Daily Sun

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is expected to table proposals before Cabinet next week that could drastically change the academic calendar.

This comes as a result of the extension of the national 21-day lockdown by a further two weeks, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday evening.

But according to an unofficial document, titled Draft Framework for Curriculum Recovery post Covid-19, which has been circulated among parents and other interest groups, the department is investigating at least two possible scenarios.

Schools may only reopen on July 7, according to one of the possible scenarios currently under consideration by the department of basic education, although there is no finality about the plan at this stage.

On Friday, Motshekga revealed her department’s plans during an interview with news channel eNCA.

“We have been looking at different scenarios for what is possible under the circumstances and were relieved yesterday [Thursday] when the president gave some sense of time frames that we are going to have to deal with,” Motshekga said.

“So, there are proposals that we will give to Cabinet next week because, if you recall yesterday [Thursday], the president had said that each sector had to say what safe measures we can put in place to ensure that we phase out the lockdown in a safe manner,” she said.

Schools may only reopen on July 7, according to one of the possible scenarios currently under consideration by the department of basic education, although there is no finality about the plan at this stage.

Motshekga cited as possibilities the scrapping of the June and September holidays, and moving exams scheduled for November to December to make up for the time lost because of the lockdown.

But she was quick to add that these plans were not “concrete”, saying the education sector believed it needed to “do whatever it takes” to salvage this academic year.

The minister said that provincial education departments and teams responsible for the curriculum were looking at how internal grades could be examined on at least 80% of the curriculum.

They were also considering combining the 2020 and 2021 school years to cover areas that would have been omitted.

She also said plans were afoot to phase in the return of pupils to class, starting from mid-April and going on until June.

“The worst-case scenario, I suspect, would be [if] the phasing-in period lasts until June. We hope that it will start in mid-April so that we can have testing taking place among pupils. Maybe we can phase in the Grade 12s and Grade 7s first, and then work out how to phase in other grades gradually up to June.”

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