Chronicle EditorMashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT will today roll out the fourth phase of radio lessons programme for secondary school classes as part of an alternative education platform to maximise on learning following the prolonged closure of schools due to Covid-19 pandemic.
In July, Government with the assistance of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), distributed more than 200 000 radios to rural communities to ensure that children continued to learn during the closure of schools.
Schools have reopened for face-to-face lessons for all pupils today after examination classes resumed lessons last week.
The pupils were last at school on June 3 following a long break as the country battled to contain rising Covid-19-related deaths and infections.
The radio lessons programme is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in partnership with the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Zimpapers and Unicef.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education said the lessons will be aired on Star FM from today until 17 September 2021 under the second schedule of the fourth phase of the programme.
The ministry’s director of communications and advocacy Mr Taungana Ndoro yesterday said radio lessons will continue to be aired despite the reopening of schools as they have proved to be effective.
“Tomorrow’s (today) reopening of schools will not stop us from continuing with radio lessons because our thrust is to provide quality education for all Zimbabweans. We don’t want to leave any learner behind including those that are yet to return to the classroom,” he said.
Mr Ndoro said they are working closely with teachers to produce the radio lessons.
He said Government is rolling out the programme as part of narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor in terms of access to education, particularly targeting poor children in the rural areas who have no access to technology and money to buy data bundles.
“These radio lessons will ensure that rural learners and those who are from poor backgrounds are not left behind in terms of access to education in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1),” he said.
Under the fourth phase of the programme, which is targeting Form Two to Four classes, learners will be taught Geography, History, English, Family and Religious Studies, English Literature, IsiNdebele, ChiShona, Commerce and Business Enterprise.
The programme was officially launched by Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cain Mathema in June last year at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) Montrose Studios in Bulawayo.
When the radio lessons started last year soon after the launch, learners in early childhood development (ECD), primary and secondary school classes were taught indigenous languages. When schools closed for the better of last year, pupils, especially exam classes, had to resort to online learning which most rural pupils could not access. This has been blamed for the rural pupils’ poor performance in public examinations last year.
Government then decided to give rural communities radios so that pupils could access radio lessons. — mashnets
Online Reporter