Chronicle Editor
The Government on Tuesday released the schools calendar for this year, indicating a return to the traditional three-term teaching and learning period, this time 185 days long.
Two years of high Covid-19 cases constrained the calendar to not only a few days running over two terms but also enforced extended holidays.
In 2020 for instance, schools remained closed for six months as the Government struggled to deal with what was then a new, highly infectious and dangerous disease.
Last year’s calendar was disrupted as well. Schools opened in late March instead of early January, and closed in June. They were supposed to open later that month but a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases forced the Government to defer the beginning of the second term to early August for exam-writing classes and early September for non-exam writing classes.
This year, schools’ opening was delayed from early last month to Monday next week. That was in response to high coronavirus infections but all children – those who will write their final exams this year and those who aren’t – must be in class on the same day next week.
Ahead of the reopening of schools, teachers declared on Monday that they are prepared to work, contrary to some claims that they were not.
At the same time, the Government has indicated it is recruiting 10 000 more teachers to fill vacancies that arose as a result of natural attrition and the need to meet social distancing guidelines of teachers taking smaller classes than before.
This means that, a week before classes must resume, we are certain that, indeed, all is set for the school year which we hope and pray will not be disrupted by Covid-19 on a scale the past two years were.
Teachers have to be commended for declaring their readiness to do their work when schools reopen. One or two unions known to have minuscule memberships and loud mouths have been saying they weren’t ready, claiming their members did not have money to return to their stations.
The unions, whose budgets are funded more by Western governments and foundations bent on destabilising the country than membership subscriptions as is the norm in unionism, have been agitating and agitating.
However, the largest union, Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association has said it is all systems go. That is the right position to take, a position which puts their work and pupils’ welfare first and politics on the back burner.
That position also acknowledges the efforts that the Government is making to improve teachers’ welfare. Their salaries are being reviewed from time to time, they enjoy benefits such as accommodation, transport and duty-free importation of vehicles for personal use. Just last month, the Government started paying teachers, and other civil servants, a US$75 monthly allowance.
In terms of teacher recruitment, we are encouraged by the employer’s response to the need to fill vacancies and to ensure classes are decongested as Covid-19 protocols demand.
With the need for smaller classes as a way to limit the spread of the viral infection, more teachers are needed. Also, the Government has been building new schools, and those schools need educators to take the kids through.
Apart from Covid-19 demands and expansion of schools, there is the normal attrition of employees – some retire, resign or pass on. These need to be replaced as well. Last year, the Government recruited 3 800 teachers, down from 5 300 in 2020. In total, the Government must employ 40 000 educators to join 140 000 who are in service already.
We want the Government to work with greater speed to recruit the 10 000 teachers it has targeted this year so that the teacher-pupil ratio is reduced and Covid-19 protocols respected.
As that happens, school authorities, parents and their children must continue wearing face masks properly, socially distance, washing their hands regularly with soapy water and practising good personal hygiene.
It is good that all systems are set for the beginning of the school calendar for this year. It is our hope that Covid-19 will not be disruptive this year as it was over the past two years.
That can be possible, we are encouraged, as vaccination against the disease is being intensified and considering our collective resolve as a country to fight to live with the disease.
Online Reporter