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LEAKED SCHOOL CALENDAR A DRAFT PROPOSAL – PS

19/01/2022 08:23:00 KHULILE THWALA

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MBABANE – A leaked document, which appears to be the proposed school calendar, has been labelled by government as a draft under consideration.

This comes after a document, which appears to be this year’s school calendar from the Ministry of Education and Training, was leaked to the public yesterday. In the purported school calendar, it was indicated that the third term, which public schools were currently in, would close officially on March 25 and the new school calendar would resume on April 4, as the beginning of the first term and new school year. The leaked document further stated that the mid-term break for the new academic year and purported first term would be from June 23 to June 24, 2022 while the closure of schools would be on August 26. According to the leaked document, schools were further expected to reopen on September 7 for the third term and close for the year on December 22, 2022.

Resumed

It is worth noting that, the school calendar this year was expected to be different due to the fact that the third term resumed this year after schools only opened for about four months last year. The closure and reopening of schools was due to high infection rates of COVID-19 last year during the third wave as well as the fourth wave, as well as disruptions caused by the protesting of pupils across the country at various schools. When reached for comment to verify the authenticity of the leaked document, the Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Education and Training, Bhekithemba Gama, said the document this reporter was speaking of was one of the examples under consideration by the ministry and relevant stakeholders. He said the finalised school calendar was still under discussion and deliberations over it were still ongoing. “There are still ongoing deliberations. For now, yes what you have presented was one of the examples on the table, however, the school calendar has not yet been finalised and it would be premature to say that it was,” he said. When asked when the finalised school calendar would be made available to the general public, the PS mentioned that this would be soon; however, he did not want to commit himself. He further emphasised that the leaked document with the school calendar was merely one of the documents they were currently working on but was not necessarily the final draft.

Overdue

The Swaziland National Association of Teachers (SNAT) Secretary General, Sikelela Dlamini, was also contacted on the matter. This reporter wanted to ascertain what the possible implications of not having access to this year’s school calendar were on teachers, to which he responded that the release of the amended calendar was a process which was long overdue. I think the release of this school year’s calendar is long overdue. As SNAT, we have not participated in the process that sought to draft the new calendar. When we enquired about that, we were informed that it was still under the consideration of various officers,” said Dlamini. He further said the absence of the school calendar made their planning as teachers quite difficult as they had to ensure that the pupils were brought up to speed with the subjects as they had missed out on a lot while schools were closed. When the Eswatini Principals Association (EPA) President Welcome Mhlanga was reached for comment, he did not wish to comment on this particular issue.

Previously, government indicated that the third term examinations would be completed in March this year and the school calendar would resume around April. The Ministry of Education and Training had also previously indicated that the 2022 school year would be compressed in order for the curriculum to be completed in less months than in previous years. In previous years the first term typically resumed mid-January and completed around April, while the second term commonly started in late May. A head teacher in one of the prominent schools in the Manzini Region was reached for comment on the matter, to which she stated that the planning of the year was already underway in their school despite the school calendar not being out. She stated that once the calendar was out they would work around it. “I think at this point it is a matter of being proactive and working around the school calendar once it is out. However, we do hope that the final copy will be released soon as not having a calendar to work with is challenging, especially for the teachers,” she said. This publication had previously reported that the examinations timetable for the third term had not yet been released and some teachers were now getting frustrated and were disappointed at the lack of communication from the Education Ministry.

Platforms

In an interview with this publication, the Minister of Education and Training, Lady Mabuza, stated that teachers needed to use the right platform to address such issues. She said anything that involved schools needed to be addressed with the ministry.
“Teachers know very well that anything that concerns the ministry should be addressed to the ministry. We have addressed these issues time and again and teachers know very well everything they need to know regarding the term,” she said.