1. The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has noted with concern over the past few years that certain schools are not adhering to the officially stipulated number of school hours, with a consequent loss of teaching time. The impact of this loss on learner achievement is indisputable.
2. To safeguard the educational rights of children, the WCED intends taking disciplinary action against principals of schools that continue to shorten the school day.
3. In this regard, we wish to draw the attention of school principals to the following:
3.1 It is expected of every school to satisfy the official requirements relating to school hours in all grades throughout the school year.
3.2 All learners are expected to attend school for the full school day on each school day of the year
3.3 Every effort must be made to ensure that Grade 12 examinations do not affect teaching time in the rest of the school.
3.4 Under no circumstances should any learners be allowed to remain at home when they are not writing examinations.
3.5 The school day must begin at the stipulated time each day for all learners, including those writing examinations. This will assist in maintaining order and discipline in the school.
3.6 When other types of assessment, e.g. controlled tests, are conducted, these must be scheduled within normal school hours.
3.7 In the case of Grade 12 learners, schools may amend the normal timetable to include tutorials, study groups, individual remedial sessions, revision lessons and regular classes within a structured, supervised environment.
3.8 Teachers must satisfy the 35-hours-per-week requirement throughout the year.
3.9 On the last day of each term, learners must be at school for at least 3 hours and teachers for at least 5 hours.
4. In the limited time available to the teachers and learners - and bearing in mind the loss of teaching time caused by the recent strain of influenza - it is imperative that discipline is maintained among learners at all schools. The full use of teaching time is an important way of achieving this. Principals must not succumb to pressure from communities or staff to shorten the school day.
5. School principals are reminded that they are required to apply to the district office if they wish a group of learners to embark on an excursion during school hours.
6. Activities which schools schedule during teaching time and which have little or no educational value, e.g. surf walks, feature days, will not be approved by the district office.
7. The June examination results have shown that there are many learners at risk, and it is therefore necessary that, where applicable, schools do everything possible to make up for teaching time they may have lost, beginning with the full use of remaining time available.


SIGNED: LJ ROSE
HEAD: EDUCATION
DATE: 2009:08:19