DA welcomes continuation of school holiday – proposes innovative Curriculum recovery
30 August 2021
The DA welcomes the announcement by the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, that the October school holidays would not be scrapped. The DA still believes that allowing planned school holidays to continue as normal plays a crucial role in the mental health of learners and teachers.
The DA also urges the Minister to institute a curriculum recovery plan as soon as possible. It is very worrying that 50 to 75% of learning time was lost in 2020 and that the 2021 educational year is following the same track. Especially foundation education learners will suffer in their following school years if this is not addressed.
While we understand that it would be difficult to save the curriculum overnight, the DA recommends the following short to long-term measures to recover as much of the curriculum and learning time as possible and give our learners the best chance of future success:
DBE must ensure that the provinces and various district circuits engage with teaching staff to truly understand the various schools in every district’s specific needs and concerns in completing the curriculum and to find solutions in bridging those shortfalls.