Pretoria - The Department of Basic Education has gazetted a policy aimed at promoting regular school attendance of learners by instituting proper recording and monitoring systems.
The policy, which was gazetted on Tuesday, was developed in response to the need for national norms and standards for the recording, management and monitoring of learner attendance.
"It provides schools with standardised procedures for these processes with a view to ensuring equity in the treatment of learners across provinces," the department said.
It also re-asserts the responsibility of parents and caregivers to ensure that their children attend school regularly.
The key aspects of the policy are that all learners, with the exception of Grade 12 learners, must attend school on every school day, including examination periods (before, during and after examinations) for the total number of official school days of each year.
Grade 12 learners may also take five days study leave before the first day of the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Examination, and a learner's records will be cancelled in the class register if he/she is absent from school for ten consecutive school days without a valid reason.
"Learners' records cannot be retained in the class register when they are no longer attending schools as this inflates learner numbers," the department said.
Other reasons for cancelling a learner's record include exemption from compulsory school attendance, expulsion, transfer to another school, registration for home education.
The policy clarifies that if a learner returns to school after his/her record has been cancelled, the learner must be readmitted to school.
"School governing bodies are expected to monitor learner attendance rates at the school," the department said, adding that provincial departments should raise public awareness of the educational and social importance of regular attendance at school.
The policy, which will only apply to public schools, will be implemented in schools from 1 January 2011.
