By ZBC Reporter
Schools are set to reopen for examination classes on March 15 2021 with the rest going back to school on March 22.
To recover lost ground, government has instituted robust strategies that will assist learners while ordering schools to prepare for safe reopening to guarantee the safety of learners.
“Cabinet agreed that the school calendar for 2021 starts on a slightly phased approach, with the examination classes opening on 15th March and the rest on 22nd March 2021,” said the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa.
“Teachers for examination classes should therefore report for duty on 10th of March, and the rest on 17th March, 2021.
“There shall be rotational school attendance in classes where learners cannot exercise social distancing. On the days when learners are not at school, they will be engaged through strategies such as Open Distance Learning and e-learning.
“Relevant modules are already under production. Among the catch-up strategies, all continuing classes will start with 2020 work.
“Syllabi have been compressed to facilitate accelerated coverage. Both Primary and Secondary school levels will follow three levels of accelerated compressed syllabus coverage.”
The decision to set the dates for the re-opening follows an encouraging report by the Government last week that preparations for resumption of classes have reached an advanced stage following inspections done to ensure that schools are compliant with Covid-19 control protocols to avoid a spike in infections.
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education officials, working in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, had to check that the measures, informed by World Health Organisation guidelines, were in place.
Under the protocols, classes must be smaller with more teachers are being employed to allow this.
So the Government has been on a whirlwind campaign to employ qualified but jobless teachers to allow the splitting of classes.
A total of $600 million was set aside by the Government and disbursed to needy schools that had to upgrade their sanitation, enabling them to reopen safely without risking a spike in infections.