The Sunday News
Melinda Ncube, Sunday News Reporter
THE Government has warned private schools that are planning to deviate from the Cabinet approved 2021 school calendar that they risk being charged and de-registered.
Some private schools have constantly tried to have their own calendar, ignoring the one developed by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and in the latest development they have planned to have their pupils go on exeat weekend. The ministry has since said the move is illegal.
After physical learning was again disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education issued a compressed calendar following the order that physical classes could now resume so that there is a need for learners to capture the lost learning and teaching period affected by lockdowns due to Covid-19.
In an interview, the director of Information and Advocacy in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Mr Taungana Ndoro, said they were aware of what private schools were intending to do in terms of granting themselves leave and exeat weekends, something that is against the policy of the ministry especially at boarding schools where learners are given passes to go home during the weekends.
“We want to reiterate that it is illegal for any teacher who needs to take a break or leave during the school days and no learners are supposed to go back home especially from boarding school. Together with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, we want to curb the spread of Covid-19 in our schools but now if we have a learner from a boarding school to go throughout the country then come back will perpetuate the spread of Covid-19. Besides that we also want learners to catch on, on the lost learning and teaching period that was deprived of them during the lockdown,” he said.
