Mgcini Dlamini
RURAL Communities Empowerment Trust (RCET) has sounded the death knell on Matabeleland North education, warning people to brace for the worst grade 7, form 4 and 6 results.
Vumani Ndlovu, RCET coordinator, briefed The Zambezi Times that the Corona virus will worsen education challenges in the province.
“Covid-19 will exacerbate the situation. We don’t expect the rural children to do well given the fact that this year they did not learn anything,” said Ndlovu.
“From January to February teachers were on strike then in March schools closed earlier to contain the outbreak of covid 19. Some Pupils from urban schools resorted to eLearning, radio lessons and private lessons. Such facilities and opportunities were not available to rural learners due to lack of communication network challenges, radio signals and inability to pay teachers for private lessons. In September, the government relaxed the Covid-19 regulations and ordered schools to open in phases but the teachers were not available, they cited incapacitation.
“It is against this background that one can argue that the rural children are not ready for the December exams. “The general views advanced by the parents in rural areas is that the government must consider 2020 as a wasted year and perhaps alter the school calendar to allow the 2020 candidates to write perhaps in April or June 2021.”
The government closed schools late March to curb the spread of the novel Corona virus.
However, schools were reopened in September but teachers went on strike, demanding salaries in forex.
Ndlovu argued that Matabeleland North has underperformed in education in the past decades because of lack of resources.
Said Ndlovu: “The majority of schools in Matabeleland North almost in every year produce poor results especially at grade 7 and O level due a plethora of issues that include lack of learning infrastructure, inadequate resourcing of schools both financial and human capital, long distances and the general poverty dogging the rural communities among other factors.
