School closures II

My October report revealed that:

70% of the schools were facing temporary closure as a result of the non-availability of teachers.
Exam class students were suffering the most as a result of teachers not turning up for work.

This report gives some insight of the current state of affairs in three different categories of schools and possible effects on examination results:

Government Urban Schools
Rural Schools
Private and Mission Schools

Government urban schools

Primary schools visited were Riverside School, Stanley, Cecil John Rhodes, Runyararo and in almost all these schools, only the Head of school were turning up for work. In a few cases, senior teachers would only come in for non-teaching administration work.

Secondary schools like Chaplin High, Thornhill High and Liebenburg are only open to "O" and "A" exam classes. Urban affluent parents are paying private tutors in foreign currency or groceries. However, this only benefits a small fraction of the whole student population and may not be sustainable for a very long time.

Rural Schools

Reports from the rural schools also show a grim picture. After the Grade 7 Public exams, no learning activity has been experienced. The only few teachers who were present during invigilation sessions have since left again leaving the head of school as the only active member at the station.

Rural secondary schools are only attending to exam classes who are writing public exams. No preparations what so ever had been made for these exams because all teachers were absent.

Private and Mission Schools

Some private schools were not affected by recent closures for the reasons cited in the previous report. These private schools can afford to pay their staff high salaries and so learning has not been interrupted. Examples are Midlands Christian School and Anderson Adventist School which had a normal term because with all lessons in full swing.

Mission Boarding Schools were adversely affected during the last few weeks of the month of October because they did not have enough food supplies for their students leaving them with no option but to close early. Non-exam classes forms 1,2,3 and 5 went home first followed by exam classes. The most recent victims were two well-known schools, St Francis of Assisi and Daramombe.

Conclusion

Judging from the above, personal observations, reports from concerned parents & teachers, it can be concluded that this was a very difficult term for parents, teachers, students and other key stakeholders in the field of education. Schools did not reflect a picture of being centres of learning and knowledge but were just lifeless empty building throughout the whole term.

The report was written by Tongai Mushangwe, a Project Manager for Educated Horizon in Mashonaland East Province of Zimbabwe