A top government official has hinted at schools re-opening in August and go all the way to Christmas to compensate for time lost due to Covid-19 and the subsequent national lockdown.
Speaking during a UNDP and Higherlife Foundation organised media training webinar, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Nick Mangwana said government is worried by the number of days lost on the school calendar due to the global pandemic.
“We still need to bring people to classes and whatever number of days that have been lost in the current school calendar would have to be covered.
“It may mean that we are going to open schools in around maybe August and go all the way to Christmas with no breaking between.
“I am not saying this is what we are going to do but we are still talking so that we ensure learners recover,” said Mangwana.
He added that the education ministry was exploring ways of allowing learners to use online facilities to continue with school until Covid-19 is under control.
“The ministry of primary and secondary education is working to ensure that those who can do things online right now can continue learning,” he added.
Mangwana however said online learning was a challenge in Zimbabwe as the majority of pupils live in rural areas where there is little access to electricity and the prohibitive cost of mobile data.
According to Mangwana 1.5 million learners are on the Ruzivo platform against a learning population of around 3.6 million, an indication that the internet is not accessible to the majority.
