New school calendar on the cards . . . 1,5 m learners to get free education

30 Jan, 2022 - 00:01 0 Views
New school  calendar on the cards . . . 1,5 m learners to get free education Mr Tawungana Ndoro

The Sunday News

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

THE Government will this week announce a new school calendar that will also determine the new fees structure that schools should charge for the first term which was delayed by almost a month. 

 

The Government on Friday announced that schools will open for the first term on 7 February but did not announce when they will close.

According to the initial school calendar which was released last year, the first term was set to begin on 10 January and end on 7 April.

The second term was set to begin on 9 May ending on 4 August while the third term was to start on 5 September and finish on 1 December.

Director of communication and advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Mr Taungana Ndoro told Sunday News yesterday that the ministry was crafting a new calendar to accommodate the delay.

He added that officers in the ministry were already working on the calendar, which will be announced by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mrs Tumisang Thabela in due course.

“What has been happening now was a lot of background discussions regarding the issue of fees, with the schools submitting their applications for fees increment while they waited for the announcement of the opening day.

What will happen now is that the new fess structures will be determined by the school calendar, which our Permanent Secretary will soon be announcing in due course as already our officers are working on it,” said Mr Ndoro.

Covid-19 has over the past two years disrupted learning at both schools and tertiary institutions.

In 2020 and 2021, the country was forced to adopt only two terms instead of three due to the long closure to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Public examinations were also delayed and in the past two years, had to spill into the following year.

Mr Ndoro emphasised that no school could go ahead and effect school fees or levy increment without approval from the ministry.

“The ministerial position has been clear regarding these tuition fees, in that only those structures approved by the ministry will be considered binding.

All these other fees that have been peddled around without any approval are deemed illegal and officials that go ahead will be regarded as defiant and will be dealt with accordingly,” said Mr Ndoro.

According to the set systems, parents and schools must have school development plans and budgets every year.

They put the budget proposals, including any proposed school fees adjustments, to a vote among parents and they come up with a consensus on whether to adjust the fees.

Schools then approach the ministry with the adjustment proposal for endorsement.

Meanwhile, Mr Ndoro revealed that the community outreach for schoolchildren that dropped out of school for various reasons, for them to be able to come back to school, was yielding positive results.

He said the ministry had decided to embark on the exercise after realising huge numbers of drop-outs since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, with reasons ranging from teen pregnancies to financial challenges.

“The outreach has largely been a success as we have had  a number of our pupils returning to classes.

What we realised is that there was basically lack of awareness among the public, for example for pupils who cannot pay their fees, the  Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) facility has actually now doubled as they are targeting 1,5 million learners.

Further, young mothers did not know that the Education Act now allows them to go back to school.

We, however, faced challenges, for example in some cases boys ventured into artisanal mining while others just lost interest in school but we are working to also tackle this,” said Mr Ndoro.

He said the emphasis on the outreach was the issue of inclusivity where Government wants to ensure that everyone has access to education.

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