The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Sunday News Reporter
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has set up a Command Centre that will monitor and record in real time teacher attendance at all schools from tomorrow as the last batch of pupils return to school after almost eight months.
Schools open full throttle when the remaining classes, ECD A and B, Grades 1 to 5 and Forms 1 and 2 open as part of a phased reopening that was announced by the Government in September.
The first phased reopening started on 28 September with three examination classes — Grade 7, Form 4 and Upper Sixth and on 26 October pupils in next year’s examination classes — Grade 6, Form 3 and Lower Sixth or Form 5 joined in.
Schools were closed in March as part of Governments efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19.
However, learning at some schools has been disrupted by teachers who have not been reporting for duty to force the Government to review their salaries.
Although the Government has offered the teachers and the rest of civil servants a 70 percent salary adjustment, some teachers have continued to abscond work forcing Government to threaten disciplinary action and docking salaries. In the latest turn of events, the ministry has now formed a Command Centre that will liaise with heads of schools who would be mandated to send names and details of all teachers tomorrow morning once the schools open.
In an interview, Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Director of Communications Mr Taungana Ndoro told Sunday News that reports on the activities of the teachers were expected at the Command Centre a few hours after reopening so that action is quickly taken. He said the ministry was, however, confident that teachers will report for duty on Monday.
“We are very confident that teachers will report for duty on Monday as schools open. We will be monitoring the turnout of teachers through our National Command Centre. We will be gathering statistics from all provinces. We are confident that the numbers will be high. By end of day (Monday) we would have the statistics of the teachers’ turnout for duty,” he said.
For those who will fail to report for duty, the heads are also expected to submit the names and details to the Command Centre with Government saying it will not pay those not reporting for duty.
Meanwhile, our Harare Bureau reports that non-examination classes will not attend school daily and will alternate attendance days to allow for proper implementation of social distancing rules.
Authorities have designed an ad-hoc learning programme entailing intensified one-on-one learning, provision of self-study guidelines and rigorous homework in order to accelerate catching up. The 2020 and 2021 examination classes, which returned to school in September and October respectively, are already undertaking the improvised learning regime.
Government is also encouraging hot-sitting at schools that may have inadequate infrastructure and resources to properly implement Covid-19 prevention regulations. “Hot-sitting” is when the school day is split into morning and afternoon sessions for different classes to allow for sharing of classrooms and other resources at schools.
Mr Ndoro told our Harare Bureau that only classes that will sit for this year’s public examinations should attend school every day.
He said authorities had put in place guidelines to monitor learners’ individual performance levels and compare them to where one was at the close of the first term when schools were shut.
Last week, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cain Mathema said 5 300 teachers had been recruited to fill staffing gaps caused by teachers who have remained on strike.
Last week Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Professor Paul Mavima said Government was in no position to pay the US$520 being demanded by its workers.
“I think the Government has shown sincerity to the teachers. They should return to work while we negotiate. There is no way we can pay US$520 or its equivalent without rocking the boat or without causing instability (in the economy),” said Prof Mavhima while responding to a question in the Senate.
Indications are that about 40 percent of educators have been attending to their classes in public schools, raising the ire of their employer.
