Top Govt Official Says Schools Could Reopen In August
Zimbabwe’s schools could reopen in August and go all the way to Christmas with no breaking between.
This was said by the permanent secretary in the ministry of information, publicity and broadcasting services, Nick Mangwana on Wednesday.
He made the revelations while responding to questions during a webinar media training which was organised by UNDP, Higherlife Foundation, in partnership with the ministry of information, publicity and broadcasting services. Said Mangwana:
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.
The school calendar is one of the most affected in our country because of the lockdown and because of the virus.
The ministry of primary and secondary education is looking working ensuring that those who can do things online right now can continue learning.
Introducing online learning in Zimbabwe will be a challenge, however, as the majority of pupils live in rural areas where there is little access to electricity and the prohibitive cost of mobile data.
Mangwana also that 1.5 million learners were on the Ruzivo platform while the country’s learning population mainstream is around 3.6 million, an indication that the internet is not accessible to the majority.