The Ministry of General Education has adjusted this year’s examination time tables for Grades 7, 9, and 12 to December to enable pupils have more time to learn.
General Education Minister David Mabumba announced at a joint press briefing with Minister of Information and Broadcasting Dora Siliya that the school calendar has also been adjusted with the second term running from June 1, to August 28 while the third term is expected to start on September 14 to December 4.
Mr. Mabumba explained that lessons will start from where the teachers ended when schools abruptly closed in the 1st term following the outbreak of COVID-19 adding that all examinations will be based on what the pupils will learn.
“The 3rd term will ran from 14th September to the 4th December while external Examinations will be on 31st August to 15th September 2020,”
Mr. Mabumba added.
And Mr Mabumba has assured parents and guardians that the Government will ensure that schools are safer for the learners.
He stated that President Edgar Lungu means well for the people of Zambia adding that he wouldn’t risk the lives of their children as they go back to school.
Mr. Mabumba also disclosed that masks will be made available to all the learners and teachers as a preventive measure against the spread of coronavirus.
The General Education Minister also emphasized that school authorities will ensure that social distancing is observed.
Mr. Mabumba added that Covid 19 sensitization material will be provided to parents, teachers and pupils as well screening and testing of every person accessing school premises.
And Mr. Mabumba has disclosed that he will send a team from the Ministry of General Education to go and make an independent assessment on the children as they open Schools on First June.
This is time to invest in outdoor education, even if parts of the western world have opened schools, most of the learning is in form of outdoor education and home classes. This is the missing point the Zambian education experts are missing, they are just cutting and pasting what is obtaining in the west without being informed by the local science!!
It doesn’t need rocket science, how does one expect the same old time table when it was disrupted.
There are a lot of confusing statements coming from this Ministry. You’re confusing us. If your pronouncements are not coordinated it will be difficult to run school programs this year. You know that your Ministry is broke then you suspend user fees, how are school going to pay for water, electricity and other essential needs? This is why some parents are saying that you begin by opening Parliament and not schools. Can you put your act together?
I think we should open in August rather than June which is very cold, our winter.
If we reopened in August then the suggestion by @KM of open air classes would be ideal and a creative Zambian solution.
In view that graspdes 7, 9, and 12 are life changing exams. The pressure is too much on the children.
How many schools will have adequate facilities in place for children to wash their hands with soap several times a day?
Bwana Minister,
The safest way to ensure pupils do not bring Covid19 into the school environment is to TEST every child. We have boarding schools that have pupils from all over Zambia including some of the hotspots of this pandemic. Its not enough to simply give them a face mask and social distance, boarding schools must be absolutely certain that all returning pupils are safe from the virus. In a school environment if you wait for symptoms to manifest, half to the entire school would have been infected and what will follow is school closures again.
Results of Covid19 test, we are told, comes out after 24hrs. Lets have all returning boarding school pupils swabbed and tested as they report on 30th May by 1st June results would have been known and if any pupil tests positive, they can be…
…..they can be removed while schools open as scheduled.