Schools opening date set

Harare, (New Ziana) – The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education said on Wednesday schools will open for the 2024 first term on January 9, dispelling rumours that indicated an earlier date.

The Minister, Torerayi Moyo told a press conference the January 9 re-opening of schools would give parents and guardians more time to prepare.

“The Ministry of Primary and Secondary (Education) would like to inform parents, students and all stakeholders in the educational fraternity about the opening of schools as there has been confusion about the opening of schools as some have been saying schools are opening 2nd of January 2024.The correct position is that schools are opening on the 9th of January 2024,” he said.

“It gives parents adequate time to prepare for schools’ opening. We want to encourage Form 1 students who enrolled in boarding schools that they are likely to go to their schools on Sunday, 7 January 2024 so that they have time to go through orientation and induction at their respective schools.”

Moyo warned school authorities against forcing parents to buy school uniforms from the schools, a practice he described as illegal.

The correct position is that parents and students are allowed to buy correct uniforms from any stores of their choice as there is no law that compels them to buy uniform at schools they would have enrolled, he said.

“Another important development is to advise schools to accept all forms of currency. We have heard of schools that demand only US$.

We have a multi-currency regime in operation in this country so we expect schools to accept any form of payment that is brought by the parents or guardian towards payment of levies and school fees,” said Moyo.

He said parents and guardians paying in the local currency should use the official bank rate guided by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), adding that parents with queries or complaints can report to the district, provincial or come directly to the Ministry head office and measures would be taken against the reported school authorities.

“We have what we call Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 which criminalises demand of uniforms from a particular school. You are forced to buy or purchase uniforms at a particular school it’s a violation of the law so we are going to invoke SI 1 of 2000,” said Moyo.

Meanwhile, Moyo said the Ministry had been reviewing the school curriculum, and the results from the voluminous review exercise report would be made public next February.

“We now have the final product (Curriculum review report) and what remains to be done is to take the results to Cabinet on the 6th of February 2024. There is no way we can introduce the new curriculum to the schools before it is presented to Cabinet. There are going to be some changes, either we realign CALA or we are going to totally remove it and that will happen before 28 February 2024,” said Moyo.

New Ziana