High expectations as new school term begins

Herald Reporters

THE 2025 school calendar for the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education gets into full swing today, with Government yesterday saying top among their priorities is the employment of over 8 000 teachers and continuation with construction of new schools and expansion of existing ones.

This was said by Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Dr Torerayi Moyo, at a “Meet the Media” session in Harare, an initiative of the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services to allow the media an opportunity to interact with Ministers on many topical issues.

Giving an overview of the Ministry’s operations, Dr Moyo said they have targeted to employ over 8 000 new teachers following the adoption of the Heritage-Based curriculum that is focused on producing goods and services useful to the economy, based on a country’s heritage or natural endowments.

It seeks to ensure that learners acquire skills, values and attitudes that are useful in life.

“I am happy the Heritage-Based curriculum will take effect from 2025 to 2030, the time when the vision of the President will be realised,” Dr Moyo said. “So, in terms of recruitment, we submitted our bids to recruit teachers. We are expecting to recruit not less than 8 000. 

“These are the teachers that we recruit under expansion recruitment. There is a difference between expansion and attrition posts.” 

Dr Moyo added that they have already started audits to determine the vacancies for the attrition posts while the recruitment for the expansion posts would require Treasury concurrence to fill them. 

“Usually Treasury, after mobilising funds, they will tell us, now you can recruit in the first term, 3 000 or 4 000. Like last year, we recruited 3 000 in March. 

“That’s for the time when we got the Treasury concurrence. So, we expect 8 000 to be recruited, and that is very important, because we have already started decentralising the recruitment process,” he said.

The ministry, which is the biggest in Zimbabwe, was allocated ZiG46 billion, the biggest vote in the 2025 national Budget.

The funds will be spent on overhead costs. 

“We are also going to utilise part of that money on the schools construction, which is very important. It is mandatory for us as a Ministry, as Government, to build new schools. We have a deficit. When I took over in 2020, we had a deficit of 3 000. 

“I am able to announce that now we have a deficit of 2 600 schools. Last year, we managed to build a total of 104 schools. These are schools that were built by the Government and by our partners. 

“We have also built a number of classrooms, more than 300 000 classrooms that we built in both the rural and the urban areas. So, I’m very happy with the progress that we are making as Government. I feel so grateful for the support that I received from the President, Dr Mnangagwa. He is the one who allowed us to introduce the Heritage-Based curriculum which we have aligned with the national strategic Vision 2030 and to realise Vision 2030, it is going to be done through the National Development Strategy 2, which takes effect from 2025 to 2030,” Dr Moyo said.

Meanwhile, it was a hive of activity in Harare’s central business district as parents and guardians with children attending boarding schools paid fees at banks while others were taking buses to school.

Other parents flooded stationery and uniform shops to make last-ditch purchases of outstanding requirements.

Buses from mission and boarding schools were also at their usual pick-up points, including the Robert Mugabe Square next to the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society and opposite the City of Harare Library, taking learners to school.

School administrators were checking if learners had paid fees at banks, before allowing them to board buses.

Those that had not paid fees or made payment plans were barred from getting onto buses.

Highfield resident, Ms Joyce Muraiwa expressed gratitude for the school’s proactive measures to enhance security, especially paying fees at banks to avoid robberies.

“These security protocols not only safeguard against potential threats, but also give us peace of mind that our children are in a secure learning environment,” she said.

A School Development Committee member from Oswards Mission, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the school was accepting school fees paid in various currencies, with payments made at the bank before the school’s opening day.

“As you can see here, these are the proof of payments for our school fees, and parents are paying with the currency they have,” she said.

“Students are thrilled to return to school after the long holiday, and we’re relieved that we do not have any reports of death, serious illness, or marriages among our learners.”

In Bulawayo, the CBD bustled with activity yesterday as parents, guardians, and learners thronged the city’s streets and pick-up points in a last-minute dash to prepare for the 2025 school calendar. 

The annual back-to-school rush injected life into the city’s economy, with businesses and vendors cashing in on the surge in demand for school supplies and services. Many parents, burdened with bulging shopping bags, jostled through the crowded streets to grab the last items on their checklists. 

Shops selling stationery, uniforms, and school bags were packed to capacity, while vendors along the pavements displayed essential school items, hoping to attract hurried buyers. 

The City Hall area was a hive of activity as buses lined up to ferry learners to boarding schools across the region. Long queues formed, with some buses already filled, forcing parents to wait for additional transport. 

Similarly, the OK Mart parking lot in Raylton saw a flurry of farewells as parents loaded school trunks and groceries onto buses and trucks destined for boarding schools. 

The scramble for transport saw some boarding schools outsourcing buses from local institutions such as Amhlophe High School in Pumula East, Townsend High School in Ilanda, and Mpumelelo Primary School in Mpopoma.