News24 reports that Mugwena Maluleke, general secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), says that suggestions that school holidays could be scrapped for the remainder of the year to make up for lost time are not concrete.  

Maluleke indicated:  "There are many ideas floating around and we will be engaging with the education department on those ideas as well as sharing our own ideas."  On Friday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said that one proposal under consideration by her department was cancelling school holidays to regain time lost in the 2020 academic year.  Even before the lockdown started last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced schools would be closed to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.  With the lockdown extended to 30 April, schools will be closed for more than six weeks.  Motshekga's spokesperson, Elijah Mhlanga, said a team of experts was currently working on a plan on how schools would eventually be reopened.  He advised that there was ongoing engagement between the union and the department, inclusive of ways to adjust the school calendar as well as changes that might be needed in the assessment of pupils.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nicole McCain at News24
• Read too, Plan to salvage school year being hammered out, on page 4 of Sunday Times of 12 April 2020

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