Govt releases 2022 schools calendar
THE Primary and Secondary Education ministry has released the 2022 school calendar which will see scholars attending classes for 45 days during the first term. This follows government’s announcement last week that schools will open on February 7 after reopening was postponed last month due to COVID-19 restrictions.
According to the calendar, schools will close on April 5, 2022, for the first term. The second term will begin on May 3 and end on August 4, which means it will constitute of 69 days.
The third term will begin on September 5 and end on December 3, making a total of 71 school days.
Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro yesterday told NewsDay that the 2022 calendar was designed to ensure that pupils catch up with the syllabi after disruption of learning due to COVID-19 lockdown.
“Learners need adequate time to learn and catch up with their syllabi as school reopening had been postponed owing to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ndoro said.
“The calendar, therefore, ensures that pupils have enough time to study so that they will be ready for their examinations by year-end.”
The reopening of schools comes at a time when teachers have threatened to down tools in protest over government’s failure to address their salary concerns.
Teachers are demanding the preOctober 2018 salaries of between US$520 and US$540 per month.
In a statement, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said: “Know you all that whereas the ministry has produced a revised calendar, the number of learning days per term will not be decided by the calendar, but by the Public Service Commission and Treasury’s seriousness in dealing with the issue of teacher remuneration. US$540 or no learning.”
Educators’ Union of Zimbabwe (EUZ) secretary-general Tapedza Zhou said: “EUZ is concerned with the government announcement that schools shall open on February 7, 2022 without undertaking serious mitigatory measures to ensure that the financial welfare of teachers is catered for. We are equally dismayed that our request for the restoration of US$540 as our monthly salary has never been taken seriously by our employer, and the promise to do so by June 2021 has remained a white elephant (sic).”
They said teachers were still incapacitated and would not report for duty as expected by their employer.
But Ndoro said the government was not fazed by the teachers’ threats as it had become the norm for them to complain.
“We are very confident that teachers will be in schools on Monday. We always expect the mantra of teachers threatening to boycott classes. But there are some teachers who are very noble, who joined the profession because of a calling. These will be on duty. What is very unfortunate is that some of the teachers’ union leaders are not active teachers and will be out of touch with what will be happening in classes,” he said.
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