Pretoria - Learners in the Western Cape are set to have a shorter holiday during the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Education MEC Donald Grant announced on Tuesday that more than half the schools in the province had opted to shorten the holiday period by either closing their doors two weeks later then the official start of the holiday, or by opening a week before the end of the holiday.
"A long holiday period poses a threat to the sustained reading, writing and calculating abilities of our children, breaks the rhythm of instruction by educators, and can also lead to a lack of retention of the curriculum taught in the first half of the school year.
"It is essential that while all citizens of this province, including learners, enjoy the spectacle of the World Cup, that parents, learners and teachers make every effort to ensure that all our learners are encouraged to read, write and calculate every day during the school holiday," Grant said.
To mitigate this threat, the provincial education department has developed a comprehensive School Holiday Plan for 2010 that uses the energy around the event to enhance teaching and learning both at school and at home and support curriculum delivery.
"These initiatives and activities are based on the premise that children learn best when instruction is continuous," he said.
The majority of schools, which are secondary schools, have opted to host winter school programmes for Grade 12s.
A number of curriculum support programmes that will enhance learning over the holiday period have been introduced. These programmes support all grades, with a particular focus on their Grade 12s who will begin writing the National Senior Certificate Examinations in just 152 days time.
During the school holidays as part of the School Holiday Plan, a number of underperforming schools will be embarking on winter school programmes, focusing on critical subject areas such as Maths, Physics, Accounting, Life Sciences and Geography.
Grant said these programmes will keep learners occupied both mentally and physically during this period.
"Winter schools are an effective intervention to counteract holiday learning loss," he said.
The department strongly advises all learners, particularly in the higher grades, to use the holiday period for revision and practice purposes.
Past examination papers will be delivered to district offices this week for distribution to schools and tutoring centres.
High level tuition will also be offered on SABC 1 every day from 2pm to 3pm.
To escape distractions at home, the department has ensured that study rooms at schools will be made available for learners in areas such as Khayelitsha (10 venues available) and Mitchells Plain (5 venues available).
These rooms will be safe and secure places for studying, and will provide past examination papers, textbooks and study guides for use by learners.
Extensive reading lists for learners of all ages, to encourage holiday and leisure time reading will also be made available.
More than150 venues will hold these programmes in the eight districts: Metro North 34, Metro East 24, Metro South 17, Metro Central 21, Eden/Karoo 30, West Coast 8, Overberg 11 and Winelands 9.
