The ministry of primary and secondary education has instructed Grade seven pupils to continue reporting for school in order to undertake Life Orientation Programme.
ZIMSEC Grade seven examinations ended on Monday this week with the school third term still halfway.
“District Schools Inspectors, kindly remind your Heads of Schools (Primary) that Grade 7 pupils are to continue to attend schools as they will now be doing Life Orientation Programme (LOP). Request your schools to submit time-table for Life Orientation Programme, at the same time submit attendance statistics daily,” reads the letter from a Provincial Education Director for Harare Jameson Machimbira to District Schools Inspectors.
The move has riled teacher unions which felt the move was just imposed without consulting education stakeholders.
“The poor teachers have no idea what they will be teaching,” Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general Raymond Majongwe said.
He added that Grade seven teachers and the pupils themselves deserved to rest as examinations are a ‘tough game’.
“What happened to stakeholder engagement? Schools are not paddocks. This is crazy! Why invent new rules mid-flight? Let the kids and the teachers rest. Preparations for examinations are a tough game.”
