Story by Fairstars Mukungurutse
THE the second term commenced this Tuesday across the country, with the successful implementation of the heritage-based curriculum high on the agenda.
It is that time of the year again where students experience the struggle of heading to school in extremely cold temperatures. As the day started on a bright Tuesday morning, schools across the capital city of Harare were bustling with activity as they welcomed students for the first day of the second term.
For parents and guardians, school opening means forgoing personal preferences as it comes with the hustle of getting children ready for early wake-ups as well as ensuring they get to school on time.
“I am happy schools have opened and we have started the school run, However, it’s a bit tough because of the cold weather, it’s difficult to wake up especially my little child who is in ECD, it’s quite a struggle to convince him to go to school,” a parent said.
“I am accompanying my child to school, he is in grade one and he is not yet ready to go alone. It was however a struggle to wake him up due to the cold weather but he is really excited to go back to school since they spent a long time at home during the holidays,” another parent said.
Students from primary and secondary school were excited to reunite with friends, pledging to deliver good results.
“We are excited to go back to school after a long rest. During the holiday we were revising school work and having the time of our lives with friends but now it’s back to business, our parents emphasised hard work so we promised to deliver good results though it’s a bit tough to wake up early during winter time,” a pupil said.
Educationists reiterated the importance of the second term on the academic calendar.
“As you may be aware, Term two is the busiest term, where we will be winding up a lot of things in terms of our syllabus, especially the heritage-based curriculum that we have, we have embraced it so well. Last term, we had workshops, which were conducted by the ministry from the province to our districts as well as the schools,” educationist, Dr Nathaniel Madzivanyika said.
“We are ready to pick up ourselves and make sure our children are ready for the entire term, which is the most packed term for the year in every learning institution. So, this is the most critical term for us, the one that we have in terms of our heritage-based curriculum. We are ready for the classes.”
“We are quite prepared to ensure that the term starts. We have been assisted by our Minister of Primary and Secondary Education through some standards that they’ve just published, their guidelines, which were communicated by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, and we have all adopted what they have suggested in terms of readiness and ensuring that all learners are given access to quality education. We are also ready to tackle the examinations that are coming in November,” educationist, Dr Tapera Chikandiwa said.
“We are preparing our students in terms of finalising the syllabus documents for each subject and we’ve also adopted the heritage-based curriculum. We are ready to ensure that the learners get practical in everything that they are doing. We are making sure that they adopt this approach because the documents are now available, we have been trained, and we are all ready to ensure that we follow the guidelines that we are given so that our kids get quality education.”
The first day of the second term was characterised by high student attendance with teachers reaffirming their commitment to providing vital support in the learning journey of students.
