Angola's new school calendar, which will be adopted as of the next academic year, was approved on Wednesday during the ninth meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by President João Lourenço.
"We subscribe to the new school calendar approved yesterday [Wednesday] in the Council of Ministers, in fact Sinprof has been manifesting this since last May in documents submitted to the Ministry of Education and the President of the Republic", said, in statements to Lusa, the president of the teachers' union, Guilherme Silva.
According to the union leader, Angola moved to the SADC (Southern African Development Community) calendar in 1999 with the aim of regional integration and the circulation of teachers and students.
"But we have not seen any gains in this regional circulation and we have even noticed that this integration has been incipient, even from an economic point of view, mainly because most of our scholarship students are more in the northern hemisphere", he observed.
For Guilherme Silva, the new school calendar in the country, which he considers a "right decision, although late", will help students not be penalized during the rainy season or even the cacimbo period (dry season, between 15 May and 15 of August).
So, he continued, "the decision to have the school calendar start in September and end in June and July is welcome, so we subscribed and we were defending that".
The official also stressed: "The country's decision-makers have been able to listen to the most diverse fringes of society in order to contribute all for the good of the country".
Classes in general education and the sub-sector of university education, suspended since March due to covid-19, gradually resume, starting next Monday, October 5th.
The measure of mismatch is part of the period of public calamity that Angola has been experiencing since last May 26.
The Framework School Calendar approved on Wednesday should be in force in all public, public-private and private educational institutions with the purpose of setting the academic period, preparing the academic year, determining the solemn moments, school, teaching, assessment activities and periods of interruptions and vacations.
