This year has been just every bit as tumultuous as last year due to the ongoing pandemic. Learners have only managed to go to school for two terms the first and the current third term. Despite all this limited learning and preparation that has taken place over the two year period, the government says November examinations will be written this year although they will possibly spill over into next year as we saw with last year’s 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.
They have convinced us that given all the efforts we have made, it is possible to run examinations starting in 2021.
We might spill over for some of the examinations to the beginning of 2022.
This year, we have had two sessions, the first session was a whole term, which is about 60 days, this second session has 80 days instead of 60 days, which is your ordinary term, plus a third of that ordinary term.
If you use simple arithmetic, the children have lost about two-thirds of a term in terms of physical presence at school.
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.
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education secretary Tumisang Thabela
