Grade R pupils could miss 55 days of school with DBE’s plans

Today the director-general of basic education, Hubert Mathanzima Mweli, presented the department’s proposal for the phased-in approach to the opening of schools.

As part of this, they have suggested that Grade R pupils go back to school on 15 July 2020. Schools in South Africa initially closed two days early ahead of the Easter holidays and remained closed until after Easter weekend as they remained close up to today.

Also read: Questions parents will be asking about the department of education’s back-to-school plan

Taking into consideration that schools were supposed to be closed from March 20 and reopen on March 31, a July 15 reopening would mean that children in Grade R would have missed 55 days of school.

In a recent letter outlining the impact of all of these closures on both the private but more critically the public education system, former vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State Professor Jonathan Jansen commented: “There is no way that curriculum time lost in 2020 can be crammed into the same year.”