Abstract
The education system has been affected by 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic. In order to curb the widespread of coronavirus pandemic, people were recommended to exercise social-distancing and self-isolation. The idea of social-distancing and self-isolation has resulted in the closures of schools, universities and colleges as Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education try to control the spread of the contagious disease among learners in Zimbabwe. The effects and perceptions of Zimbabwean parents, teachers, learners and stakeholders on education and Covid19 are a cause for concern. The closure of educational institutions in response to the pandemic has risen to alarming levels. In this article, the issue of online learning has been seen as the impending solution to the challenges posed to the teaching and learning process during the coronavirus pandemic outbreak in Zimbabwe. What is very disturbing is that the mitigating measures proposed by stakeholders and government seem to favour the have and the have-not are severely impacted. At the end of the day, all the strides Zimbabwe has been making in terms of bringing education to the door step and improvement of standards of life is just going down the drain due to lack of ICT equipment and technical expertise. The study was carried out through qualitative method through a phenomenological approach. Snowballing, interviews, observations and document reviews were made use of in gathering the data for this article. Presentation is mainly descriptive since the type of data gathered depended much on the experiences and feelings of the people in the society about the impact of Covid19 on education. A number of recommendations were put forward that include the government putting in place laws that restrict mobile operators to hike their charges and all educational stakeholders should be heard when they air their concern.
Highlights
The world was caught unawares when the deadly coronavirus pandemic thump
Interpretive or qualitative paradigm gave the researchers more room to investigate through document analysis, telephone interviews and conversations with research participants what can be done to provide continued learning to learners during the coronavirus pandemic outbreak
The use of distance learning programmes and open educational applications and platforms can go a long way especially during the Covid19 pandemic outbreak where social distance and selfisolation is recommended
Summary
The world was caught unawares when the deadly coronavirus pandemic thump. The rapid spreading of coronavirus around the world has seen several countries take rushed and crucial actions to alleviate the development of a full-blown pandemic but the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 which ensures the inclusive and equitable squality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all. Closure of schools affects learners in both the urban and rural areas of Zimbabwe but the rural areas learners are unduly affected as they are more severely disadvantaged. Their overall development is compromised, leaving them technologically disadvantaged with little or no ICT tools and skills
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