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Roselyne Sachiti
Features, Health and Society Editor
The new curriculum introduced in 2016, which is quite unfamiliar with the older generation of Zimbabweans, has become a learning tool, not only for schoolchildren, but their parents as well.
All new learning areas like heritage studies and primary school level agriculture are the most difficult for most parents, who are helping out their children with school work at home.
Add to that, mathematical equations which most parents have forgotten are coming up daily, as children do their school tasks.
This has become a headache and nightmare for many parents who are reminded of their challenges during their primary and high school education.
Welcome to the day in a life of a parent, especially during this Covid-19 lockdown, when many of them have become teachers.
Many parents have forgotten what they learnt at school and if search engine google could spill the beans, topics they are searching in a bid to help their children with school work will turn up quite interesting.
Since the beginning of Zimbabwe’s lockdown on March 30, children of school-going age have been at home.
It has been a love-hate relationship between parents and their children.
At some point, the maternal and paternal instincts are set aside when parents play the role of teachers and have no choice, but be strict with their little ones.
Parents who spoke to The Herald shared the good, the bad and the ugly of home schooling their kids.
A father of three, Dr Harrison Rambanepasi, said his wife and him were using Google classroom for their son who is in Form 1.
The couple is also using WhatsApp for its boys in Grade 1 and 3.
“The Form 1 child is a bit mature and is able to do most of his work on his own,” said Dr Rambanepasi. “Our younger boys need help with almost all their work and that is quite demanding on us as parents, considering that we are both working.
“We have had to make a special arrangement with the teachers where we submit the assigned work in the evening or early next day.”
The learning, said Dr Rambanepasi, was Internet-based and data is expensive.
“In addition, in some cases you have to purchase an extra gadget which is Internet compatible and results in extra costs,” he said. “With kids accessing Internet on their own, you always worry that they might end up wandering around and stumbling upon sites that they are not supposed to access.
“Otherwise home schooling made us appreciate teachers more.”
Another parent, Memory Chinaka, said home schooling was not easy.
“Even if you are a teacher by profession, it’s not practical to be with your kids for more than enough period,” she said. “I am letting my kids work on their own and when they have difficulties they come for help.”
Chinaka said to ensure the children concentrate on school work, the television is switched on only when they are done with their school work.
“Someone told me that to keep children interested, she even makes the kids pack lunch boxes,” she said. “It is important to be lenient. Covid-19 affected everyone, therefore, as a parent we feel for them. I would understand if they don’t feel like working and allow them to play.”
Another mother, Irene Nyanyiwa, said it was good that children were now moving with technology.
At first, she said, it was quite a challenge, but her children were slowly getting there.
For her kids’ school work, Nyanyiwa has been using google class.
“On a scale of 10, I give home schooling a six,” she said. “This is because when kids are comfortably at home they find it difficult to pay attention to the teacher, unlike when they are in a classroom set up.
“You also have background noise disrupting the kids, as well as siblings trying to also fit in.”
Challenges, Nyanyiwa pointed out, include buying bundles daily for those without WiFi.
“As a working mother, you are not there to supervise the work being done and the websites being visited,” she said. “So, in no time you are being told the bundles are finished. The network is frequently dropping.”
For Nyanyiwa, the lack of technical skills to explore the various options available to assist in online learning remained a challenge.
But she singled out some successes.
Children are learning in the comfort of their homes, no waking up early to go to school, and of course, no social distancing because they are all confined in the house.
Nyanyiwa urged Internet service providers to give robust and affordable services.
Yet, another parent, Shorai Mugwidi, said home schooling was not an easy task, especially for parents who have children that are writing Grade 7 this year.
“It made us realise the importance of the real teacher in a classroom,” she said. “For some of us who did not study agriculture, the change of the curriculum means you need extra money to cater for Google.”
To make life bearable, Mugwidi says they had to join a Grade 7 revision chat group on WhatsApp.
“In the group, the teacher puts some Grade 7 work of all subjects included, but for it to be marked you have to buy data bundles for the teacher,” she said.
“If you fail to buy data, the work is not marked. This is a disadvantage to parents who cannot afford data for both the teacher and themselves. It’s very expensive.”
According to Mugwidi, sharing a phone for doing the work is also another disadvantage.
As some teachers will be doing online teaching, a parent with the phone may be at work during the day and a child misses out, she said.
Diana Biston Mhundwa is both a mother and a professional teacher.
She says she has been lucky as her daughter is going on with her lessons, but the biggest challenge she has noted is the unavailability of pupil to pupil interaction where needed.
“In some cases, pupils understand concepts better when they are discussing with each other,” said Mhundwa. “It is also difficult to create a learning environment which is conducive at home.”
A professional teacher and mother, Loiuse Nyakudanga, said teaching her own child at home had proved to be quite challenging.
“I’m also a teacher, but it was a bit challenging home teaching my child,” she said. “She could not take the lessons seriously, so I had to engage her friends who are in the same grade with her. It is now a conducive learning environment for her because of the colleagues. It’s now back to business.”
Another parent, Saxon Zvina, said the interaction between the teacher and the pupil had no substitute.
“Having questions and answers tends to probe a thought process between both teacher and pupil,” he said. “The weaker pupils will suffer as they will not have someone to help them as classroom set up helps the pupils to help each other.
“For calculation and concept based subjects like Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, it’s a daunting task as the pupil will need further assistance.”
In this regard, Zvina said, home schooling could result in plummeting of results in Science based subjects, as the home schooling approach will leave out a key component of practicals, which constitute about 25 percent of the final exam mark.
“The lack of practicals results in us having half-baked scientists who will not possess an innovative skill, which is a critical component in delivering development,” he said.
As some children continue learning from home, it is important for Internet service providers to design packages that are both affordable and user friendly to the younger pupils.
Online Reporter