JUST IN | Schools will close for four weeks: President Cyril Ramaphosa

All public schools must close for a month, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Thursday, with matrics taking a week off, and grade 7s two weeks.

“Cabinet has decided today [Thursday] that all public schools should take a break for the next four weeks,” he said.

This means that schools will close from July 27 to August 24.

He said matric pupils would only take a week off before returning to class on August 3.

Grade 7 pupils would take a two-week break and be back in August 10.

Ramaphosa was speaking during an address to the nation on Thursday night. He said more than 6,000 people had died of Covid-19, and 408,052 infections had been confirmed.

Ramaphosa said the “health and wellbeing” of pupils and educators was critical — and that a “major and lasting disruption to learning would have a devastating impact” on pupils.

“It was difficult to find consensus on the best approach. What everyone does agree on though is that the health, the academic and social development of the learners must remain our foremost concern.”

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