June school holidays to start from May 5 to cover extended circuit breaker period, says Ong Ye Kung

SINGAPORE - The mid-year school holidays will start earlier from May 5 to cover the entire extended circuit breaker until June 1, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Tuesday (April 21).

"By 1 Jun 2020, hopefully the situation will be much better, and we can look forward to a safe and orderly opening of schools," he said in a Facebook post.

"This would mean that Term 3 will be very long. So we will factor in an additional one week, mid-term break from 20-26 July. Term 3 will comprise 7 weeks, one week break and then 6 weeks. Most teachers will use the break to review or re-plan their lessons," he added.

The additional break of one week will reduce curriculum teaching time, he said. As it is, the pace of home-based learning tends to be slower than classroom teaching, he noted.

"We will therefore also make certain topics commonly taught by all schools at the end of the academic year be non-examinable. Some of these topics are pie charts and volume for PSLE Maths, Organic chemistry and vectors for O level Chemistry and Maths respectively."

This will reduce the curriculum load and ease the pressure off teachers and students in catching up with the curriculum, Mr Ong said.

"Just to be clear, as far as possible, these topics will still be taught. But they will not appear as questions in the national examinations," he added.

The ministry had already implemented full home-based learning that started from April 8, and was meant to last until May 4, in support of the circuit breaker measures to close most workplaces.

Home-based learning is a combination of online lessons and activities, as well as offline readings and assignments.

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Students who do not have support at home will continue to be supported by a small group of teachers in schools, and they can use devices and the Internet access in their schools.

In his fourth national address on the Covid-19 situation on Tuesday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that circuit breaker will be extended by another month to June 1, to further curb the spread of the virus.

While he noted that the circuit breaker measures have been working, he stressed that Singapore cannot be complacent. He said the number of unlinked cases has not come down, which suggests a "hidden reservoir" of cases in the community.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.