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

The Education Department has opened the doors for parents to comment on the draft school holidays for 2021.

Do you know you have a right as a parent to determine school holidays. Here’s an opportunity to influence the next school holidays. Should the schools keep the bambinos longer during December? Say so now, don’t miss that opportunity however check with @DBE_SA for the closing date pic.twitter.com/8j21mThZQ0

— Panyaza Lesufi (@Lesufi) December 18, 2019

Education Dept campaign to involve parents in school calendar

Minister of Education, 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.

Thanks Comrade @Lesufi, as IBandla laMaNazaretha u July inyanga yo mhlangano, all followers are required to be at EKuphakameni, in recent years we have seen a shift in June holidays,opening early in July, therefore our children have been unable to attend.We will make submissions

— Sanele Sano Ngcobo🇿🇦 (@sanosanele) December 18, 2019

How to submit comment on 2021 school holidays

There are 31 proposed school holidays for 2021, 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 highly noted.

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

A dropdown menu will appear once you have clicked on ‘School Calendar’; select ‘2021 school calendar’. The page will load a yearly view of the calendar, filled with dates marked according to the keys noted on the side.

Once you have observed the proposed school holidays, you can forward comments to the Director-General of the Basic Education Department at Mlambo.S@dbe.gov.za; cc Manaka.L@dbe.gov.za.