Christmas comes early for pupils

MBABANE – Pupils in Swaziland are set for early festive holidays as some schools are closing before the school calendar closing date.

The Ministry of Education set the closing date for primary and high schools at December 12, 2008. However, it has been gathered that some schools have already closed, while some will close a week earlier.

One school that has already offered its pupils an early end of year break is Mjingo High school, that closed its doors three weeks ago.

Dominic Nxumalo, Swaziland National Association of Teachers’ (SNAT) outgoing Secretary General, said schools were supposed to get permission to close before the set date. He added, however, that there were various reasons for schools closing earlier than usual.

"Procedurally, principals have to submit requests to deviate from the school calendar from the Director of Education via the Regional Education Offices (REOs)," he said.

When contacted for comment, some schools refused to divulge whether they would be closing earlier or not. Pupils at Mjingo High School have already begun their festive holidays as renovations were being done on the school during the holidays.

Manzini Central High School Principal Charles Bennett, who is also chairperson of the Swaziland Principals Association, said pupils were sent home early to give teachers time to prepare reports. "Sometimes pupils are sent to wait for their results at home to avoid misbehaviour, while the teachers are marking the exam papers," he said.

"Permission is sought from the REO, but sometimes principals are forced by other pressing circumstances to close earlier."

Bennett added that parents also expected their children’s reports no later than the closing date.

Another factor contributing to the early closure was to provide sufficient time to the teachers who had to mark external examinations.

Manzini Central will be closing before the end of this week as it is the appointed venue for marking the Junior Certificate papers, which will begin soon.

Some other schools will stick to the school calendar and close on December 12, especially those that are privately owned.

SAIM Christian High School’s last day will be on December 11.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: