Primary and Secondary Education secretary, Tumisang Thabela says Zimsec students will be ready for this year’s examinations despite the Covid -19 disruptions.
Addressing journalists during a post-Cabinet briefing, Thabela said she has faith in Zimbabwean teachers hence learners will be ready for exams this year.
“We believe our learners will be ready, by the way, Zimbabwean learners are hungry for education and the Zimbabwean teacher is always amazing when it comes to trying to get their child ready for their future,” she said.
This contradicts with teachers who on Monday told this publication that they are still incapacitated hence they will not report for duty unless their grievances are met.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president, Mr Takavafira Zhou said, “Contrary to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education’s facade of lies to the effect that schools are ready to open, the five days of school opening for exam classes has shown beyond any reasonable doubt all signs of ill-preparedness in form of no running water in schools, no covid abatement equipment in schools, no recruitment of many teachers to guarantee appropriate teacher : pupil ration, no new infrastructural development to guarantee social distance.”
Teachers were arguing that schools were not even ready for opening let alone tackling Zimsec examinations.
However, the government said they have consulted their educational system and are convinced that it is possible to run the exams.
“The long and short of it is we have consulted our system, especially the heads of our schools who run our shop floor level,
“If you use simple arithmetic, the children have lost about two thirds of a term in terms of physical presence at school,” the secretary of education added.
Apart from COVID-19-induced school closures, most teachers refused to report for duty when schools reopened in March for the first term, demanding better salaries and working conditions.
