HARARE – Primary and secondary school pupils will have just 17 days to rest during the December holidays before schools re-open, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education said on Wednesday.

Exam-taking classes re-opened on Monday amid a wage strike by teachers which threatens a school calendar already disrupted by the forced closure of schools in March owing to the coronavirus outbreak.

Thumisang Thabela, the primary and secondary school ministry secretary, said schools will close on December 18 and re-open on January 4.

The government is determined to see all classes go to the next grade this year, even as teachers’ unions have warned that the lost teaching time means a big majority of children are not ready to sit their exams. Unions had proposed that the year be written off.

Grade 7, Form 4 and Upper Sixth learners returned to class on Monday. A second group comprising pupils in Grade 6, Form 3 and Lower Sixth will open schools on October 26 with the rest expected to re-open on November 9.

Teachers’ unions have called strikes to demand better pay. Teachers currently earn Z$3,500 (about US$42) per month in a country where a family of six needs at least Z$17,800 to survive, according to government figures.

Teachers are demanding US$520 (Z$42,488) to cope with soaring inflation of over 700 percent. The economic crisis has stoked anger against President Emmerson Mnangagwa who took power in a 2017 military coup while promising to uplift livelihoods.

Over the weekend, the government through the Public Service Commission said it would pay public sector workers a cost of living adjustment on October 2, although the size of the adjustment was not quantified.