Schools to close early
Allgovernment schools will close a week early on 21 April, the Ministry of Education permanent secretary, Sanet Steenkamp, announced in statement sent to all chief regional officers and regional councils.
Steenkamp said schools must release learners on Friday, 21 April. If there were schools that had scheduled examinations for next week they must adjust their timetables to ensure that all examinations and tests were written by 21 April.
The schools were initially scheduled to close next week Wednesday, on 26 April.
“There is a circular in place that states learners should be released three days before the assessment marks are in to allow the teachers to have enough time to mark,” she said in an interview with Namibian Sun.
Steenkamp also said the extension of the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) and National Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) examination registration had necessitated the early closure of government schools.
“We are experiencing a shortage of manpower to help with the registration so if government schools close earlier, we can send more teachers to help out and hasten the process.”
She said the deviation from the school calendar was only applicable to learners and all teachers and other staff were required to work until the end of the term.
“The staff members can use this time to finalise outstanding administrative tasks and prepare for the reopening of schools for term two of 2017,” Steenkamp said.
She said if schools closed on Wednesday, learners would have had to travel home on a weekday and that would have inconvenienced their parents.
“Moving it to Friday makes it easier to plan travel arrangements over the weekend,” Steenkamp said.
TUNOHOLE MUNGOBA
Steenkamp said schools must release learners on Friday, 21 April. If there were schools that had scheduled examinations for next week they must adjust their timetables to ensure that all examinations and tests were written by 21 April.
The schools were initially scheduled to close next week Wednesday, on 26 April.
“There is a circular in place that states learners should be released three days before the assessment marks are in to allow the teachers to have enough time to mark,” she said in an interview with Namibian Sun.
Steenkamp also said the extension of the Namibian College of Open Learning (Namcol) Junior Secondary Certificate (JSC) and National Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) examination registration had necessitated the early closure of government schools.
“We are experiencing a shortage of manpower to help with the registration so if government schools close earlier, we can send more teachers to help out and hasten the process.”
She said the deviation from the school calendar was only applicable to learners and all teachers and other staff were required to work until the end of the term.
“The staff members can use this time to finalise outstanding administrative tasks and prepare for the reopening of schools for term two of 2017,” Steenkamp said.
She said if schools closed on Wednesday, learners would have had to travel home on a weekday and that would have inconvenienced their parents.
“Moving it to Friday makes it easier to plan travel arrangements over the weekend,” Steenkamp said.
TUNOHOLE MUNGOBA
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