CONDUCTING LESSONS DURING HOLIDAYS UNLAWFUL - MINISTRY

MBABANE – “Pupils should help their parents as opposed to attending school on holidays, it’s unlawful.”

This was said the by the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Training, Dr Sibongile Mthali, in an interview with the Eswatini Broadcasting and Information Services yesterday. Mtshali said, procedurally schools should adhere to the calendar which governs the operation of schools in the country. She said the number of days which teachers were expected to spend in class with pupils were embodied in the school calendar. Mtshali said ideally, pupils had to spend time with their parents during school holidays since the days allocated for learning were enough to cover the syllabus. She said pupils were expected to help their parents during school holidays as opposed to going to schools. Noted is that some schools had made it a requirement that pupils attend school during holidays.

This normally happens to Grade VII, Form III and Form V pupils across the country. It is believed that extra lessons help pupils as they prepare for their external examinations. Mtshali also decried the bad practice of some schools being closed earlier than the stipulated date. “School calendar is divided into three terms and each term has a number of days for a teacher to spend in class with the pupils. These days have to be utilised for the benefit of the pupils. If schools close early, what happens to the other days?” asked Mtshali. She said having pupils learn on holidays was unlawful. On another note, the PS said school trips should not disrupt lessons. She said only educational trips were allowed during school days. Educational trips are applicable in subjects like Geography, Science and Siswati.

Request

However, she said there should be a formal request from the head teachers as the ministry needed to keep records of what was happening in schools. Mtshali said recreational trips should only be conducted during school holidays, through an approval from the ministry. “Head teachers must engage the ministry for recreational trips. The ministry is aware that some recreational trips benefit the head teachers because they buy holiday shares. It is unlawful to buy the holiday shares using school funds,” she said. The PS warned head teachers against conducting trips and lessons during holidays which were allocated for national events such as Umhlanga Reed Dance as it deprived the pupils of their rights to attend these events.

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