03 Apr 2014

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development is satisfied with the policy provisions as stipulated in the Education Act that allows some private schools to follow government school term calendar while some do not.

Answering a question in Parliament, the Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Patrick Masimolole said parents made a choice as to where to enrol their children for education and also committed to the conditions of those schools.

He said the schools were operating according to government statutes as stipulated in the Education Act Cap 58:01 Part II Section 5 [1], which stated that, “every private school shall prepare its own manual school calendar for each academic year and that the calendar shall indicate the dates on which each term shall begin and end, and the number of school days in each term.

Provided that no school calendar shall make provision for less than 180 or more than 200 school days in the academic year to which that calendar relates.”

The MP for South East South, Mr Odirile Motlhale had asked the minister to state if he was aware that private schools had different school term calendars and their opening and closing dates were not aligned to those of government schools.

 He also wanted to know whether the situation did not make planning difficult for parents who had children attending different schools. Ends