Don’t just ban summer classes

At the end of the previous academic in July, the Ministry of Education banned summer classes during recess.

The ministry threatened to inspect schools and punish any institution found conducting teaching and learning during the annual break.

My immediate reaction was whether teachers are supposed to seek permission from education authorities to be sought to conduct the classes.

I expected those who defied the order to face the whip as there had been similar orders about the requirement to harmonise the school calendar.

Unsurprisingly, non-compliant institutions go scot-free defying the orders.

I wonder whether there is an effective enforcement mechanism for the good of learners.

The school calendar is designed to cover all topics, including revision and preparation for examinations.

Curriculum developers can do everything good to fit in a school calendar, but not many schools in the country cover all the lessons.

This has become challenging with disruptions caused by public health emergencies such as Covid-19 and cholera.

As orders keep raining, it is important to realise that learning during recess helps constrained schools catch up and close well-documented gaps noted by monitors when schools open.

Can the overwhelmed inspectors enforce the bans when they cannot even monitor what happens in all schools during learning, national examinations or marking?

The Ministry of Education should urgently close the gaping discrepancies in schools that necessitate non-stop learning.

It is a pity that in this century some secondary schools do not have even a single science teacher or laboratory.

Even the teacher-to-learner ratio and dropout rates are high.

The ban was ostensibly announced to allow learners to rest. However, summer catch-up classes do not only help the learners academically, but also socially.

They safeguard the learners from child labour, risky sexual activity, teen pregnancies and child marriages common during school recess.

They keep children busy in the absence of informal schooling such as initiation and church camps.

Talking about the need for learners to rest, why is there no fuss when schools keep learners schooling throughout the academic calendar right from the first term to the last examinations?

Interestingly, the ministry’s guidelines stipulate: “In a given year, children should learn not less than 190 days and not more than 205 days.”

However, they need to clearly define what constitutes a day in a school calendar.

Otherwise, it is laughable to take the presence of learners on campus for a school day.

While some physically stay in school for the prescribed days, they actually accumulate few days of learning due to various challenges such as shortage of classrooms, teachers, not learning when national examinations are in progress and teachers’ no-show.

Yet others accumulate nearly double the days during the same period.

Think of schools with schedules that subject learners to wake up as early as 4am and go to bed around 10pm?

So, what makes some schools value or resort to summer classes is beyond the curriculum or syllabus developers’ minds.

Some look for a period and environment where learners can learn in peace with few distractions and hours of dozing off.

So, which one is more justifiable between half-day summer classes with learners operating from their homes and day-long classes conducted in schools during the first and second term holidays?

The ban on summer classes will not solve the mess in the country’s education system. It was announced without looking at the gaps haunting many schools.

The conditions the learners are subjected to while in school can be laughable.

The government should create an enabling learning and teaching environment.

Instead of banning catch-up classes, let schools have enough teaching staff, learning materials, reasonable timetables and learners’ meals for a better Malawi.