Eikestad

Ms Columbine Commaille, principal of Rhenish Girl's High, said the high schools in the town centre tried to minimize the impact with a pro-active strategy. These schools have hostels and also share the cost of public transport of their pupils.

'We knew that it would be difficult for most of our hostel students to return to school for just two school days between two long weekends. At least a month before, we met to address the issue.

'We thought it a good idea to work an extra pe?riod each day for twelve days, that being equal to two school days. We also applied to the National Minister of Education for permission to close our schools for the whole week.

'Unfortunately Minister Pandor replied that she could not accede to our request as it was a decision that had to be adhered to on a national basis.

'The effect was that the number of hostel pupils attending school on those two days was drastically reduced. I think it should be seriously considered that a mid-week public holiday, as was the case last week, should be moved to a Friday,' she said.

Mr Carel van der Merwe, Chairperson of Hoërskool Stellenbosch's governing body, had strong misgivings about such 'extra' school holidays.

'Education is all about work and commitment, not about having more holidays. Schools have already had an extra long Easter holiday; then came

these two long weekends on top of that! Being a businessman myself, it really goes against the grain to accept the principle of having a day off with full pay without having done a stitch of work,' he said.

These sentiments were shared by Mr Adam de Vries of Kylemore High School, as well as Mr Gavin Manuel of Cloetesville High.

They believe that the positive mindset of pupils, essential for the learning process, is undermined when the school pro?gramme is disrupted in such a manner.

They propose that such days be incorporated in the official end-of-term school holidays to minimize disruptions to the academic programme.