Under pressure, government closes universities and schools

Schools and tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe shut down on Tuesday 24 March as a precaution to contain the spread of COVID-19 after parents and other education sector stakeholders contested their continued operation.

Announcing the decision to close, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said government thought it prudent to err on the side of caution by closing teaching institutions where human concentration and contact are high.

“Government will advise on dates for the reopening of all teaching institutions once the threat of the virus is adjudged to have receded,” Mnangagwa said in a statement on 19 March.

As of 26 March, the country had three recorded cases of coronavirus, including one death, 30-year-old journalist Zororo Makamba.

U-turn

The call to close all teaching institutions is a precipitous U-turn from an earlier decision to let schools and universities continue teaching and learning.

On 17 March, Mnangagwa declared the coronavirus pandemic a national disaster and launched the country’s COVID-19 national response strategy. In the response plan, Mnangagwa banned all public activities and suspended gatherings of over 100 people for 60 days, including public travel to high risk countries, among other measures, but seemed to go against the global trend of closing educational institutions by allowing schools and teaching institutions to remain open for two weeks until the school term ended.

However, the decision to keep schools and universities open, encouraged in part by the fact that the country was yet to record a case of coronavirus, incited a major public outcry.

Tutuma Zimbabwe, a civic organisation, said it was extremely perturbed by the decision to leave schools open despite a blanket ban on all gatherings, and urged the government to reconsider its position.

“We have observed a number of developed countries that have strong health systems but have either closed or partially closed [schools]. Children are a vulnerable group particularly with regards to COVID-19 and therefore special care must be taken to protect them,” it said in a statement.

Until Thursday last week, Zimbabwe had not recorded a single case of COVID-19 but now has two confirmed cases reported on Friday 20 March and Saturday 21 March.

Shift in focus

Now that universities have shut, the focus is turning to alternative, online teaching and learning methods.

In statement last week, the Association of African Universities said COVID-19 presented African universities with an opportunity to institutionalise technology-based teaching and learning, adding that while many universities had implemented some kinds of e-learning management systems, most of the universities had not yet enforced technology-supported teaching and learning.

Academic Pedzisai Ruhanya said the cessation of teaching and learning in schools and universities showed that Zimbabwe was technologically backward. “Universities and colleges, especially in the digital era, should close physically but remain virtually operating using digital platforms. You can’t talk of innovation with this behaviour,” he tweeted.

National University of Science and Technology Vice-Chancellor Professor Mqhele Dlodlo said his university was closing until further notice as per the government directive and would be guided by government as to when to reopen.

However, other universities say they are ready to move their teaching and learning activities online.

We are ‘ready for online learning’

Director of Public Relations at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) Musekiwa Tapera said CUT was ready for online learning.

“As a university of technology, we have already been embracing e-learning methods. Our ebrary services reach out to students from their homes … We now have Professor Chimhundu’s e-teaching equipment which can reach out to our learners from any part of the SADC region,” he said.

Tapera added that CUT had invested ZWL$3 million to procure water augmentation equipment, sanitisers, cleaning chemicals and other preventive materials to thwart the impact of COVID-19 on students, staff and the surrounding community.

And without giving much detail, Professor Eddie Mwenje, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Universities’ Vice Chancellors’ Association, said universities have already prepared for online teaching following preparedness consultations with the higher education ministry.

“Many universities will strengthen the online teaching. We as universities are not standing idle but are ready to assist the country in all ways possible,” he said.