The DA has proposed that the school day be extended by an hour in order to provide students with the opportunity to catch up on the curriculum.
According to the political party, schools have lost approximately 50% of their curriculum due to the closure of schools and rotational learning as a result of COVID-19 in 2020, reports News24.
The start of the new year has seen Cabinet do away with rotational learning as South Africa exits the fourth wave. However, the DA is set to table its curriculum recovery plan to the Department of Basic Education and will likely present its plan to add an additional hour to a school day.
“As part of the recovery plan, the DA would suggest at least an extra hour be added to a school day. Secondly, we need to try and get retired teachers to come on board to give extra lessons,” indicated DA MP Baxolile Nodada.
“We will be monitoring the curriculum recovery plan to ensure it has been put in place by the department. Secondly, there must be a tracking, tracing and retaking strategy, particularly for all the learners that have dropped out during Covid-19,” he continued.
However, the proposal does not seem to be on the current agenda for the Department of Basic Education. Minister Angie Motshekga addressed the media this past Sunday and indicated that the top priority is to prevent further disruptions.
“The first step towards addressing the crisis of learning is to prevent further disruptions in schools and prevent other learning losses when dealing with health and safety issues in our schools.
“The second step will be to introduce measures to catch up on the time lost, as well as the teaching time lost. We urge parents and all our stakeholders in the sector to support efforts to ensure that education continues without any further delay,” she said.
The latest statistics have revealed that nearly 750 000 learners have dropped out of school during the pandemic so far, as per IOL.
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