Final-year students to return to class on 1 June

Zimbabwe’s universities will recommence classes for final-year students at the beginning of June, while the rest of the students will proceed through various forms of non-contact learning, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Professor Amon Murwira has said.

“We have agreed on a general date of 1 June. This is when every university should start blended learning. In the first phase only final-year classes are expected to be receiving face-to-face learning while others use online learning. We did this to allow social distancing on campus,” Murwira told state media.

The universities have been asked to break their classes into small classes and adjust their timetables accordingly.

Murwira said an agreement had also been reached with institutions of higher learning for examinations to be written in July and mid-August when the semester ends.

While students are happy to go back to university, they are worried that the resumption of classes was being done carelessly without any assurances about the safety of students and university staff.

Tapiwanashe Chiriga, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe National Student Union, said: “For the successful resumption of learning, students can only be on campuses if government can assure the nation that institutions will adhere to World Health Organization guidelines on prevention of the spread of COVID-19.”

“Institutions that have been used as quarantine and isolation centres must be thoroughly disinfected. Government must provide facemasks and sanitisers to students and staff.”

Chiriga said students should not be made to pay fees for the last semester.

Zimbabwe Congress of Students Union President Pijiwest Nhamburo said the union welcomed the decision to allow final-year students to complete their studies but described the proposal to write exams at the end of the semester as hurried and not feasible.

“It will put pressure on students and lecturers. Those making such decisions should know that we are not in a hurry and students have the right to be given enough time to prepare for exams,” he told University World News.

Nhamburo said more time was needed for the implementation of e-learning because many students did not have access to electronic devices and universities must first have wi-fi and functional data servers.

Universities closed in March as a safeguard against the spread of the coronavirus, but many of the universities have struggled to introduce e-learning as a means to continue teaching and learning as students have rejected the process as unaffordable.