Motshekga: Pupils must work at home during school shutdown
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga has given an assurance the academic time lost due to the closure of schools will be recovered.
On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that schools will close from Wednesday until after the Easter weekend on April 14 in an attempt to combat the rapid spread of coronavirus.
On Tuesday, Motshekga said the provincial MEC have already met to discuss ways of limiting the impact.
"Schools must give children more worksheets and give them their workbooks to work with their families, those are the arrangements that will be done from school to school.
"We estimated that we will be losing 10 days and we have agreed that I will give a notice to formally change the school calendar, which will mean we will reduce our June holidays and take more days in September to replace the number of days lost."
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Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said a shutdown of universities is not yet on the cards.
Wits University has confirmed that a medical student tested positive, while the University of Cape Town (UCT) also confirmed that a lecturer has coronavirus.
"We have said that contact at institutions must be limited, only the University of Cape Town has closed, what the other institutions have done is suspend contact lectures and we are encouraged that all universities should do that. But we are not as yet planning shut down because there are pro's and cons of shutting down universities, that is a matter we will discuss on Tuesday."