Saturday, April 19, 2008

South Africa Extends 2010 Winter School Holidays To 5 Weeks

Sources: The Daily News (Johannesburg) and South Africa public holidays. The education department is proposing a five-week school break (June 10 to July 12, 2010) during the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup to avoid pupil and teacher absenteeism and a chaotic transport system. The proposed school calendar for South African public schools has been gazetted and posted on the department's website in the hope of getting comments from interested parties.

With the FIFA World Cup starting on Friday, June 11, 2010, and the Youth Day public holiday on Wednesday, June 16, it is possible that June 14th and 15th, 2010, will be declared public holidays to make an extra-long public holiday and ensure reduced traffic during the first few days of this event which South Africa hopes to use as a way to showcase its progress to the World.

In compensation for these 2 additional public holidays, one can imagine the cancellation, in 2010, of the days in lieu scheduled for the Human Rights' Day (March 21) and Day of Goodwill (December 26) public holidays, which both fall on a weekend in 2010, and would normally lead to a public holiday on the following Monday.