{"id":380125,"date":"2020-03-09T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T12:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=380125"},"modified":"2020-03-09T14:55:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T12:55:31","slug":"major-changes-coming-to-south-african-schools-including-new-subjects-and-adjusted-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/380125\/major-changes-coming-to-south-african-schools-including-new-subjects-and-adjusted-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Major changes coming to South African schools \u2013 including new subjects and adjusted holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Department of Basic Education will introduce entrepreneurship<\/strong> and employability education<\/strong> as part of South Africa’s school curriculum.<\/p>\n

Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga said that the initiative is being driven by President Cyril Ramaphosa and will officially form part of the curriculum by 2024.<\/p>\n

“In every grade level the existing curriculum – including economics, management systems and life orientation – is being enriched with real-life projects that are learner-centred (and include entrepreneurship opportunities),” she said.<\/p>\n

“From 2020 – 2024 there will be trials in 600 schools, and we will have rolled out the entire curriculum by 2023 – 2024.”<\/p>\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa has previously emphasised<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>the importance of South Africans embracing a culture of entrepreneurship as the country aims to attract R1.2 trillion in investment over five years.<\/p>\n

“We must look at what needs to be done to promote and encourage the entrepreneurial spirit and an entrepreneurial culture. I have long said that entrepreneurial skills should be included in the basic education curriculum,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Far too often our citizens are risk-averse when it comes to entrepreneurship, preferring the so-called comfort of gainful employment to the perceived insecurity that comes with self-employment.”<\/p>\n

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Language changes\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Motshhekga said that government would also look to educate and assess more South Africans in their first languages.<\/p>\n

This follows a five-year bilingual pilot project in the Eastern Cape which found that students are more comfortable and perform better when being taught in a language they are more familiar with, she said.<\/p>\n

“We recognise the currency of English but there are Chinese scientists who don’t speak English that are doing very well.”<\/p>\n

Motshekga said her department would begin bilingual assessments starting in 2021.<\/p>\n

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Early Childhood Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

Motshekga said that government is also moving ahead with its plans to enrol all South African children in a two-year compulsory Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme before starting Grade 1.<\/p>\n

She said that Ramaphosa is set to make an official legal proclamation on the issue in the coming months which will serve as a legal framework for the changes.<\/p>\n

“Preparatory work has already taken place and we will start phasing the integrated framework by 2021,” Motshekga said.<\/p>\n

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New certificate<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moshekga said that her department was still looking to introduce a General Education Certificate (GEC) which would act as formal recognition of the completion of Grade 9.<\/p>\n

However, she noted that her department was still in talks with various authorities about the possible impact of the certificate and how it might encourage learners to leave school.<\/p>\n

Motshekga has reiterated a number of times that the certificate will not allow students to leave school, but will instead act as branching point of a new three-stream model for children to complete further education.<\/p>\n

Upon receiving the certificate, learners can then decide to continue with their school studies, study further in TVET colleges or even choose to enter into the world of work.<\/p>\n

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School calendar changes\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 2022 School Calendar states that schools will close a week later than the previous year to ensure the protection of learning and teaching time.<\/p>\n

“The opening of schools in 2022 will be staggered, with schools in the inland provinces (Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North-West) opening on 10 January 2022; while schools in coastal provinces (Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and Western Cape) will open on 17 January 2022,” Motshekga said.<\/p>\n

“Our policy states that learners must have 202 days of actual learning days, we have tried our best to adhere to this requirement.”<\/p>\n

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Coronavirus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Motshekga said that her department has received a number of enquiries about the Covid-19 coronavirus but had no plans to close any schools.<\/p>\n

Instead, she said that schools will be issued a number of safety guidelines including information on washing hands, covering mouths when coughing and avoiding contact with sick people.<\/p>\n

“These are the same basic guidelines by the Department of Health so we really don’t create unnecessary panic but are also cautious not to cause harm to our children.”<\/p>\n

At least two schools – in Grayston and in Hilton – have closed as a result of the coronavirus scare, however this was done without approval of the department.<\/p>\n

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Read: Here\u2019s how much it costs to send your kids to a Curro private school<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Department of Basic Education will introduce a number of changes to South Africa’s school curriculum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":380173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-380125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380125"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380171,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380125\/revisions\/380171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}