The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education says Grade Grade 7 learners should continue attending school until the end of the term for social protection.
Grade 7 learners finished writing their Zimbabwe School Examination Council (ZIMSEC) examinations on Monday, almost two months before the end of the third term.
Ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro said keeping the learners in school will prevent them from engaging in wayward behaviour. He said:
The school system protects them from sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Being at school prevents them from loafing around in the townships where they end up engaging in wayward behaviour.
He said Grade 7 pupils should use the period after writing examinations for educational tours as well as to learn how to transition to the secondary level. Said Ndoro:
It is the time when they would go on educational tours to places like Victoria Falls, Kariba and the like since it has thematic links to other learning areas across the curriculum.
In a memorandum dated 11 October 2022, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education instructed District Schools Inspectors to remind primary school heads that Grade 7 learners should continue to attend classes. Reads the memo:
District Schools Inspectors, kindly remind your Heads of Schools (Primary) that Grade 7 pupils are to continue to attend school as they will now be doing the Life Orientation Programme (LOP).
Request your schools to submit timetable for Life Orientation Programme, at the same time submit attendance statistics daily.
Meanwhile, Ndoro added that parents and guardians also paid fees for the whole term, so stopping children from going to school would be short-changing them. | The Herald