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Cape Town - The soccer World Cup won't be one long holiday for Western Cape pupils, if the provincial education department has its way.

MEC Donald Grant said on Tuesday that more than half the schools in the province had opted for a shorter winter break than the official national five weeks.

Some would end the current term two weeks later, while others would reopen a week early, he told a media briefing in Cape Town.
The department was also urging pupils to attend winter schools and tutorial programmes.

"The danger is, all the research shows five weeks away from time in class is just too long," he said.

"We certainly don't want to be stick-in-the-muds, but the bottom line is that we've got to keep reading, writing and calculating every day.

"There are a certain amount of hours when they're going to get hold of a television, and go to a fan park or a fan jol, but they must continue reading and exercising their minds.

"That's the important thing, and that's what we're encouraging them to do."

Grant said research commissioned by the department had shown that children themselves were worried about the lack of teaching and learning during the cup.

"So it's the children themselves who are motivated," he said.

The department encouraged pupils to use safe holiday study rooms that it was providing in areas such as Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha.
Its Safe Schools initiative was also offering programmes to keep pupils mentally and physically occupied during the cup.

"We must not forget that while the World Cup lasts only five weeks, the futures of our learners will be determined by the education that they receive now, and beyond, the World Cup," Grant said.