Zimbabwe Rejects UNICEF Push to Keep African Schools Open During

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Schools across Africa are slowly reopening after months of remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic. But Zimbabwe's teachers union is resisting going back to the classroom and has rejected a call by the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) for governments to reopen schools.

On Tuesday, Mohamed Malick Fall, regional director for UNICEF in Eastern and Southern Africa, urged governments in the region to open schools closed earlier this year following an outbreak of coronavirus.

Fall said the pandemic has caused “an unprecedented education crisis” over the last seven months as radio and online learning methods are not reaching all the students. Some also lost the daily meals they were receiving at school.

And that’s not all, said Fall.

“Lost learning hurts children and community, teenage pregnancy and violence against children increase. Now we acknowledge the safe reopening of schools will not be easy. While evidence show that children are not the main driver of the pandemic, there will be cases of COVID-19 in school(s). It will not be a practice in perfection. But it can be done with community commitment, government leadership and investment,” he said.

South Africa, despite its large COVID-19 caseloads, reopened schools for all grades at the end of August.