SADTU wants all schools to have a unified academic calendar. The union says a unified calendar leads to efficiency and administrative improvement in the education sector.
Union spokesperson, Xolani Fakude says their call is inline with improvement and monitoring of the administrative processes.
In 2018 we had a single calendar for the entire academic curriculum and that led to the improvement in terms of efficiency in administration, monitoring and evaluation.
Fakude says a single calendar will also help to facilitate family reunions and added that the agreement for an inland and coastal school calendar difference was not based on educational arguments.
The union indicated that ever since the implementation of the single academic curriculum, the road infra-structure and tourism improved in the country.
SADTU states that the schooling system needs to work in a uniform way so that it can be easily monitored. The idea to have a single calendar came way before the Covid-19 disruptions and it has nothing to do with the impact of the pandemic, Fakude said.
The teachers union says they are open to engagements about educational arguments in the change of the curriculum calendar. In addition, Fakude said the arguments to keep the current curriculum calendar must be educational rather than economic or otherwise.
SADTU said a number of stakeholders in partnership with Basic Education are also in agreement with the union’s proposal for a single calendar.
Fakude says they have been learning lessons from other countries that use the single calendar and are still able to produce good results.
According to the current curriculum calendar, schools will close on 14 December 2021. Inland schools are however scheduled to open on 12 January 2022, while coastal schools will be opening on 19 January 2021.
SADTU is against these differences and wants a single focused academic curriculum for all schools.
