Extra school holidays 'disruptive' but no teaching time lost - National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA

CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit speaks to Basil Manuel of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA).

Listen below:

In the second term of the 2025 South African school calendar, there's a special school holiday week added to the calendar from 29 April to 2 May in addition to regular public holidays.

The special holiday week is due to some public holidays in April falling over weekends but being observed during the week.

Also read: Schools get an extra week off during April

Manuel says the extra week off 'does impact learning and teaching'.

"Truancy is at its highest during these many little holidays. Besides people who just keep their children out, many children just don't pitch, so it is less productive to have the children at school... you're caught between the devil and the deep blue sea..."

- Basil Manuel, Executive Director - NAPTOSA

"We're part of the calendar committee and we supported the notion that we close, noting that there's no loss of teaching time because this year we have 203 school days as opposed to the normal 200. But, it is disruptive in the sense that the rhythm is lost, and as you pick up the rhythm, then it's lost, but it's an annual event."

- Basil Manuel, Executive Director - NAPTOSA

"It's right there in that Foundation Phase and Junior Primary where the rhythm is most difficult to keep because you're trying to establish patterns, you're teaching things like reading and that is a sustained activity and when you break it, you almost have to go back to the beginning and those teachers have to work the hardest to maintain that and, of course, appeal to parents' sensibilities to keep it going at home... but that's possible in some areas and some areas it's not."

- Basil Manuel, Executive Director - NAPTOSA

"The other group on the continuum is at the higher levels of matric where you don't want them to lose that rhythm and then find it difficult to pick up and get into the game again... to do that, teachers have to do extra things like homework packs..."

- Basil Manuel, Executive Director - NAPTOSA

"And yes, children want the holiday, and I'm an advocate for that, children need the break, children need the holiday, children must play, but we've also got to balance it."

- Basil Manuel, Executive Director - NAPTOSA

Manuel says, despite the extra holiday days, teachers are burnt out.

"Nobody sees the time spent at night, early hours of the morning when people get to school at the crack of dawn to do marking because they've also got families at home... don't for one minute assume that everyone is sitting in front of the television with their legs up... our matric teachers are feeling really burnt out because they're spending so much time at school... we've got to make a better plan. Our foundation phase teachers are also doing a marvellous job..."

- Basil Manuel, Executive Director - NAPTOSA

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