While it is only the 2018 summer holiday calendar that will be affected, both learners and teachers face a shorter summer holiday at the end of this year, Knysna-Plett Herald reports.

Department of Basic Education director general Mathanzima Hubert Mweli has announced that the 2018 summer school holiday period will be shorter than it has been in the past.

“It is not indicative of how subsequent calendars will be structured.”

Schools will close on Wednesday, 12 December for learners and on Friday, 14 December for teachers. They will reopen on Monday, 7 January for teachers and on Wednesday, 9 January for learners.

This effectively means that for the 2018 summer holidays learners will have 16 days, excluding public holidays, and teachers will have 12 days.

Mweli said in a circular the reason for the short summer holiday is that the Council of Education ministers took a decision to close schools in the first week of December with effect from 2019.

This decision was taken to ensure that the end of year National Senior Certificate examinations marking processes do not negatively impact learning and teaching time.

Scrapping supplementary exams:

This announcement comes after the Department of Basic Education said it would be scrapping Grade 12 supplementary exams as from 2019.

The department’s Elijah Mhlanga said the decision was taken after it was noted that all those pupils who qualified to write supplementary exams, did not register while of those who did, more than half did not write their exams.

Mhlanga said this has resulted in a huge financial loss for the department.