EXAMINATION AND CRITICAL CLASSES TO OPEN SCHOOLS THURSDAY 5TH AUGUST 2021- GOVERNMENT

Grades 9,10,11 12 in boarding schools, grades 9, 11 and 12 for day schools and grade 7s will this week Thursday open schools, government has announced.

This will pave way for the gradual reopening of schools for all other pupils in primary and preschool.

Announcing these measures during a joint press briefing today Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services announced that government decided to open school for critical classes to ensure that they catch up on the syllabus in readiness of examinations.

He said the other classes will open subject to the leadership that will be provided in the schools by school headteachers.

“Boarding schools for Grades 9,10,11 and 12 and Day secondary schools for Grades 9,11 and 12 and Primary schools for Grade 7s will open by Thursday 5th August, 2021.

The situation will closely be monitored and may be revisited depending on the evolution of the pandemic” Mr Malupenga said.

“The decision to open these classes will enable exam classes to adequately prepare for their final examinations.

It may be recalled that these classes were last year out of school for 7 months when the pandemic first broke out and further extension of the closure of these classes would be disastrous for the nation.” He said.

He added that there is urgent need to catch up on the lost hours of work in order to cover up the national syllabus to which primary and secondary schools are subjected during national examinations.

“If closure of schools was extended, it would be more difficult to manage the transition.” He added.

Government has also directed all School head teachers to provide leadership so that the situation in the schools that shall open, will help Government to make decisions on the remaining Grades.

The Ministry of General Education has also been directed to provide detailed operative guidance to the public to ensure smooth implementation of the directive.

Meanwhile all other measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 remain effective to be reviewed after a period of 21 days.

And the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit DMMU has announced that it will provide food supplies to boarding schools.

Speaking during the same press briefing, Permanent Secretary in the office of the Vice President, Stephen Mwansa said this is in an effort to provide relief to families of children in boarding schools.

He said all schools will be provided with facemasks, hand sanitizers, soap and other cleaning materials to ensure that the safety of the children is assured.

“All schools will be fumigated in readiness for opening and the fumigation equipment will be left at the schools for future use, the staff in schools will be taught how to use the fumigation equipment.” He said.

Mr Mwansa also director DMMU’s regional coordinators in all the districts to inspect all schools in readiness for fumigation and delivery of other protective materials.

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