HARARE – Zimbabwe’s school calendar has been revised to two instead of three terms this year, the primary and secondary education ministry announced Thursday.

Schools should have opened for the second term on June 28, but a spike in Covid-19 infections caused a two-month delay. The ministry now says schools will re-open for examination classes on August 30, and the rest of classes on September 6.

Due to the time left to the end of the year, the ministry of education says schools will remain open until December 17, and re-open for the first term of 2022 on January 11.

A typical school term averages 60 days. This year’s second term will be 80 days, and the ministry of primary and secondary education says schools will be allowed to increase fees to cover the extra 20 days.

Officials are still tight-lipped over the final examinations for Grade 7, Form 4 and Upper Sixth which typically start in November. Teachers’ unions and parents say many pupils are not ready for exams due to Covid-19 disruptions to learning, and have proposed that the tests should be postponed to the first term of next year.