THE Covid-19 pandemic may cause the new school year to start in January 2021 and not September 2020.
This according to Minister of Education Anthony Garcia at a virtual news conference to on Tuesday.
He said the last school term for 2020 will start in September while the next academic year (2021) will begin in January with it being compressed into two terms – January to April and mid-April to July.
Garcia said, “The new academic year will really start from January 2021. The implication of that would be then there is the possibility of contracting or compressing three terms into two terms.
“So we would have one term from January to April and the other term from mid-April to July.
“This is not new. We have had precedence where this is concerned in 1964 when the academic year was changed from January to September.
“The new school year started in September but three terms were compressed into two terms from January to July.
He said, “All the students will remain in school from September to December in their respective classes.”
Garcia said, “In the Standard Five they will have their examinations. In the Forms Five and Six they would have their examinations both CAPE and CSEC.
“The new school year will start in January and the students will have two terms in the new school year and when September comes we will go back to the ordinary system.”
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