mpumalanga Soweto rape Luminus Secondary School

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Education Dept opens the door for parents to influence 2021 school holidays

Parents now have a say on when their children can take a break from the 2021 curriculum.

mpumalanga Soweto rape Luminus Secondary School

Image via Wikimedia Commons

The Basic Education Department has opened the door for parents to comment on its draft of the school holidays for 2021.

Campaign to involve parents in school calendar

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has granted parents access to influence the structure of 2021’s school holidays, a measure that is guided by Section 3(4)(k) of the National Education Policy Act of 1996.

“After consultation with the Council of Education Ministers, [we] invite stakeholder bodies and members of the public to comment on the proposed 2021 school calendar,” Motshekga wrote.

The details of this campaign were shared by Gauteng Education MEC Lesufi Panyaza on social media, much to the appeasement of his followers.

How to submit comment on 2021 school holidays

There are 31 days’ proposed for 2021’s school holidays, most of which fall within the second quarter. The draft school calendar only acts as a guide for the Education Department.

This time around, the consideration of the parents and members of the public, whose schedule is directly affected by the school holidays, will be noted.

Those interested in submitting comments on the school holidays, can visit the Education Department website and scroll down to “School Calendars” on the bottom-right sidebar of the homepage.

In the dropdown menu, select “2021 school calendar”. The page will load an annual view of the calendar, filled with dates marked according to the keys noted on the side.

Once you have had a look, you can forward comments to the Basic Education Department’s director-general at Mlambo.S@dbe.gov.za and cc Manaka.L@dbe.gov.za in on the mail.