Some schools heads in Masvingo Province say they are ready to open for the second term since measures have been put in place to ensure the safety of learners.
This emerged on Thursday after a tour of some schools in the province by Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cain Mathema.
Mathema said some of the schools were putting in place measures to provide learners with personal protective equipment (PPE) and clean water. He said:
Those schools that we have visited say they are ready to reopen once the President gives them that directive.
We have seen preparations they are making; they are all following the World Health Organisation protocols.
Meanwhile, teachers’ unions on Wednesday said that a majority of their members were yet to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and were psychologically unprepared for school reopening.
Government last week gazetted Statutory Instrument (SI) 210 of 2021, stating that schools will remain closed until August 10, 2021, but preparing to reopen.
However, teachers’ unions have expressed reservations over the impending reopening of schools citing a lack of preparedness on the part of their members, the majority of whom were not vaccinated.