THE Government is considering scrapping this year’s second term and ordering that when schools open, primary and secondary school pupils will learn continuously until they close in December, Sunday News has learnt.
In addition, the Government has ordered schools to start
preparing for the reopening and a team of senior officials from both the
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and Health and Child Care was last
week on the ground to assess preparedness of the school opening. This year
schools opened for face-to-face learning on 15 March and closed for holidays on
4 June for the first term. They were supposed to open for the second term on 28
June and close on 10 September, while the third term was supposed to start on 4
October and end on 17 December.
However, schools have failed to open for the second term
due to the rise in Covid-19 cases which prompted the Government to impose a
Level Four Lockdown. On Tuesday last week, President Mnangagwa extended the
lockdown by a further two weeks, meaning that another review will only be done
after 24 August, just 17 days before the initially set date of 10 September
when schools were set to close for the second term.
Although Director of Information and Advocacy in the
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Mr Taungana Ndoro was not at
liberty to comment on the issue, sources said the ministry has already agreed
that it was impossible to run two more terms this year. Last year, the
Government was also forced to cancel term two after a long layoff due to
lockdowns.
“As a ministry all what I can say is that we are ready for
opening and we are just waiting for the President to announce the opening
dates. I can’t comment on the issue of second term because it is up to the
President but it’s true that from our initial calendar most of the days of
second term have been eaten away by the lockdown,” said Mr Ndoro.
Mr Ndoro said most schools they visited last week showed
that they were ready to start face-to-face lessons. Most schools have been
conducting online lessons.
“The issue does not only depend on the Ministry of Primary
and Secondary Education but heath experts, we could be ready but if the cases
are high then it is up to the health experts to give guidance. However, from
the survey we carried out last week, most schools are ready. We are encouraged
at one school, Pamushana in Masvingo, all the teachers and staff were
vaccinated and we encourage schools and teachers to emulate that.”
The latest development comes as the country has upped its
vaccination drive as it pushes to attain the 60 percent head immunity, with
Zimbabwe on Friday reaching another milestone after surpassing the two million
mark of people that have received their first Covid-19 jabs. According to
Government, just over 22 percent of the population has to date got their jabs.
This comes as the Government has noted the recent reduction
of numbers of Covid-19 cases as a positive move, but warned the public not to
relax, as this could lead the country into a fourth wave of the virus. The
Deputy Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr John Mangwiro, told Sunday News
that the country has noted a sharp increase in people wanting to be inoculated
against the pandemic. He assured the nation that they have enough stocks as
they had already purchased 12 million doses.
“We have enough stocks, we bought 12 million doses and the
uptake has increased so much that we need to move very fast in terms of inoculating
the public. What we have done as Government is that we have these vaccines
being given in central, provincial and
district hospitals and over 1 800 clinics.
In the next week or two we are expecting another 1,5
million doses, we also have in stock just over 1,5 million doses, we have
distributed about 5,3 million and we will keep on pushing hard,” said Dr
Mangwiro.
He said their goal was to attain herd immunity soon, which
will go a long way in the country’s Covid-19 containment measures. Dr Mangwiro
said they were impressed by the numbers of people that were coming to seek the
jabs.
“The uptake is so much that we had to rope in even private
players to also give out the vaccines as well as the uniformed forces including
the army, police and the prisons. We have even said those (nurses) that have
retired should come back and assist us in the vaccination programme and we are
definitely pushing forward. We also have outreach teams which will continue to
support us where the stations are difficult for the elderly to travel, which
will help us also attain the 60 percent herd immunity very soon and we will
continue pressing hard,” he said.
According to figures from the Ministry of Health and Child
Care as of Friday, 2 013 340 people had
got their first jab while 1 179 678 had got their second jab. Meanwhile, the
National Covid-19 Taskforce Co-ordinator Dr Agnes Mahomva told Sunday News that
despite a decrease in the number of cases and deaths being reported throughout
the country of late, there was a need for communities to remain vigilant to
prevent new infections.
Last week (as at Friday) saw 3 210 new cases being reported
and 247 deaths, compared to 7 010 cases
and 294 deaths, in the previous week. Last Tuesday, Cabinet noted that there
was a 42 percent decrease in new cases, and indicated that the infection
prevention and control measures were yielding results. Dr Mahomva emphasised
the need for continued adherence to national lockdown regulations if the
country is to continue with the trend of declining cases and deaths.
“The message now, really, is for the population to remain
focused. One of the reasons why we are in this third wave is because people
relaxed, complacency after the second wave affected us. We do not want that to
happen once again because if it does, we might find ourselves hit by a fourth
wave,” she said.
The only exception in the decline of cases is reported to
be Midlands Province which is experiencing another surge of the virus.
Concerted efforts are being made to address the situation in that province as
well as in other known Covid-19 hotspots, she said.
As of Friday, the country recorded 754 new infections and
26 deaths. Yesterday, there were 345 new cases and 17 deaths. Cumulatively,
119 853 cases and 4 090 deaths have been
reported. The national recovery rate stands at 80 percent. Work to increase bed
capacity at several Covid-19 treatment centres throughout the country is also
ongoing, officials said. Sunday News
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