Due to the ongoing pandemic and its effects on education in 2020, next year has been shaken up too. To address this the government has issues a revised school calendar for 2021.

One of the biggest bleed overs is the outgoing Matrics. More than a million of them will begin writing their final exams in just over a month on 5th November. This exam period will end on 15th December, and results from these will be available the next year with the results pencilled in for release on 22nd January 2021.

As for the remaining students their calendar for 2021 is as follows. Click on the image to enlarge it.

From here we can see that the school year will kick off on 25th January. This was confirmed by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga when she officially kicked off the countdown to the 2020 Matric exams, in that announcement she also noted that the above calendar would be gazetted today.

“We are fully aware that the country needs the school calendar for effective planning purposes; and we have worked hard to ensure it is done properly; taking into account the disruptions that have occurred in 2020. We will need to carry over some of the curriculum work into 2021; and we have done our best to accommodate the interests of everybody. But our priority, is the learner,” adds Motshekga.

While what the minister says is absolutely true and a framework like this is appreciated, we have to wonder if any leniency has been built in here. How will the calendar and the plans around it cope with a possible larger outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, or even the return of higher levels of lockdown?

From a more positive outlook things could even change should a suitable vaccine come into being, but for now we’ll have to wait and see how 2021 pans out, especially for students.

[Image – CC by tigerlily713]