By Martha Taumata Faavae
All EFKS Church schools are taking a one week holiday break this week instead of the usual 3 weeks to end the first term of schooling for the year.
The annual Malua Fonotele is usually underway at this time of the year also. First term breaks for all church schools are timed for this period to concentrate on the general conference.
This is the most important calendar event for year but it is called off this year by the coronavirus emergency lockdown restrictions.
The EFKS Church education office decided to shorten the term break to one week firstly to give teachers a brief rest.
Student studies continued during the lockdown restrictions with home assignments put together by teachers who worked right through the schools close down period.
“The teachers do need a break but some of our schools wanted classes to continue for Years 12 and 13 and they were allowed to go ahead,” said EFKS Director of Education, Ms Rosita Esera.
“I’ve also been in contact with all the schools to advise them about the re-scheduling of our normal mid-year exams in June to July.”
Ms. Esera is intent of making sure the students are able to catch up with their studies that were disrupted by health security restrictions that kept them away from classroom learning.
She readily accepted that the home assignment studies were only temporary measures to keep the childrens’ education going but there were a lot of problem with home learning.
Unlike state schools the EFKS education system is divided into three holiday terms rather than four to cater for a total school roll at all levels of more than 3,000 students.