The Department of Basic Education (DBE) released its 2022 school year calendar on Monday.
The 2022 calendar has been published in the national gazette following consultation with the Council of Education Ministers in terms of the National Education Act of 1996.
According to the calendar, inland clusters such as the Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West will share coinciding school opening and school closing dates.
The inland cluster will reopen schools a week before the rest of the country, on January 12.
Meanwhile the coastal cluster, which includes the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu Natal, Northern Cape and the Western Cape, will share its own dates.
Schools in the coastal cluster will reopen on January 19.
All schools, however, will close on the same date, December 14/15, for the end of the year.
Minister Angie Motshekga has allowed that all primary school learners will start attending school daily from July 2021; this was subject to the impact of the third wave of Covid-19.
They said the threat of the third wave posed a serious risk, but primary school learners would have to go back to school because they are not at high risk of Covid-19.
This was based on science and research done on learners.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union and the National Professional Teachers Union of SA said yesterday that the latest directions issued by Motshekga should be welcomed, but this was subject to the third wave.