Children can catch up if we all work at it

THE long-term negative side effect of Covid-19 and public health measures needed to contain it will probably be in Zimbabwe, and in most countries, the damage from the gaps in the education of most children.

As President Mnangagwa has pointed out, economic dislocation can be fixed fairly quickly, especially as the Government has managed to keep the productive sectors open and has put in place, and funded, a basic survival package for the many who are unable to earn their living during a Level Four lockdown and might well have problems even in a Level Two

e closing of schools, like the closing of swathes of the economy, is premised on a critical point, that so long as almost everyone is still alive and functioning when the threat from Covid-19 recedes sharply or is eliminated altogether, there is something to put back together.

We cannot bring back the dead, but we can restart economies and reopen schools.

But this does not alter the fact that a business person can simply carry on from where they left off when they had to close their doors, while a schoolchild has to catch up what was missed as well as carry on.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is not only aware of the dangers, but is now figuring out how to minimise the effects of dislocations caused by the need to keep all those children alive and healthy.

Standard lesson plans are being redrafted so that teachers can pack more into less time, with advantages being taken over combining topics in several subjects where this is possible.

Other moves implemented for health reasons when schools returned late last year for the third term include cutting back on extracurricular activities and shortening school holidays.

All this will help and, if memories of what will probably be now retired teachers can be tapped, quite a bit could be learned from the last few years of the liberation war

Many rural schools had to close, sometimes fairly briefly as the tide of war swept by, sometimes longer when the regime tried to make a long-term stand in some area.

Large numbers of people, and their children, were displaced, sometimes forcibly such as the with the so-called “protected villages”, basically huge rural slums built behind the wire, sometimes to flee for safer areas.

Others grew up in the refugee camps outside the country, but although there was schooling there was also intermittent intense bombing.

Yet, with all this dislocation, the first couple of years of independence saw major programmes that not only allowed children to catch up, but did this during the early phases of the huge expansion in secondary education set as an absolute priority by the first democratic Government.

One major secret was the major dedicated effort made by teachers, and we need to remember that many were teaching while they were training or having qualifications upgraded, and the huge efforts put in by parents.

A similar attitude and culture will be needed this time with professionalism rather than clock-watching being to the fore.

One difficult problem to overcome will be the gap between the better off and the ordinary people. Children who grow up in houses with computers, laptops and tablets, and with parents who can afford wi-fi connections, are not in a perfect environment, but are many times better off than children without these advantages.

They can receive online lessons. Their parents can buy necessary textbooks.

And in many cases, the parents in those sort of households did well at secondary school and have been through tertiary education so, although not trained teachers, can do more to help their children with lessons and explain difficult sections in the textbooks.

But even these children will need catch-up programmes when their schools reopen.

And in the lowest grades, where we learn to read and write, parents are remarkably ill-equipped to get a child started on their educational journey.

And if these children of the better off are falling behind, despite their huge family advantages, what do we make of the large majority?

Former education minister and professional educator Fay Chung, who has experience from the refugee camps in the liberation war, has suggested making far more use of radio, an old-fashioned technology in this modern online world, but a technology to which almost all households have access.

This is worth pursuing. There have been modest attempts to use radio, but really what it needs is dedicating an entire radio service from 8am to 6pm, the hours of daylight, to this purpose.

Even then there will be just an hour a day for each grade or form, but that will be an hour more than most children, and almost all parents, are now getting.

At the very least it gives a more formal environment for home schooling, and with carefully set-homework when the service switches to another age group, will give an opportunity for each child to be at a virtual school for several hours a day.

Even if this work has to be repeated when schools reopen, teachers can move faster if the children are still used to a partial school environment and a compressed curriculum is likely to be more successful if the children have at least heard about the concepts being taught.

Even when schools reopen, keeping the extended service going will be useful, although at that stage it might be better to concentrate on showing parents how they can do more to help their children with what will almost certainly be more homework as everyone catches up.

Zimbabweans have immense capacity to overcome setbacks and even disasters.

Despite our propensity to complain, given a strong lead by people who know what they are talking about, we do move forward.

Just look at the agricultural surge this season and, despite the present second spike and the underlying degree of complacency that arose late last year, the way we have been largely successful in combating Covid-19.

We can do the same to ensure our children can catch up.

The education ministry and its experts have started working out what is needed, but if we all back them fully we can do a lot more between us.

It is certainly worth the effort.