Consultation begins on school holiday structure, with the current one to end in 2022

THE short term future of the NT school holiday structure is being considered as students prepare for the last day of school today

THE short term future of the NT school holiday structure is being considered by Education Minister Lauren Moss as students prepare for the last day of school today before a two-week break.

The NT is in its third year of the one week, three week, two week, six week holiday calendar.

Before 2018 schools were on a one week, four week, one week, six week calendar, which was scrapped by then Education Minister Peter Chandler who said the new holiday breaks would be aimed at “improving school attendance and participation”.

The current calendar is set for five years.

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Ms Moss said consultation was underway for the 2023 to 2027 term date structure.

“The top priority for our government is that term structure optimally benefits both the health and wellbeing of teachers and school staff and the learning experience of our Territory children,” she said.

In 2015 when the changes were announced, the Australian Education Union said it did not believe a strong enough case was made as to why the school holiday calendar should be changed.

AEU NT branch president Jarvis Ryan told the NT News yesterday that while most members had mixed opinions, some found the current calendar beneficial, particularly the October break.

“For most people having the three week break in the middle of the year still gave people a substantial break,” he said.

“Under this model, the two weeks in the build up also seems to provide some relief.”

Mr Ryan said if changes were to be made, more consultation would need to be done with staff, community members and families affected by the holiday calendar.

He added one aspect that ought to be changed was synchronising when urban and remote areas return to school.

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In Term 4 urban schools will resume learning on October 12 and end on December 17.

Remote schools also resume on October 12 but finish on December 18.

“Given we’ve already made changes before, if another change is made there needs to be an extensive consultation period before that occurs,” he said.

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