Effects of Covid-19 Pandemic on Education Management Practices in Zimbabwe: A Case of Hallingbury Primary School, Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic undeniably disturbed socio-economic activities, not sparing the educational system across the globe at whirlwind speed. It impacted the educational systems negatively to a larger extent. By mid-April in 2020, the pandemic had disrupted the formal education of approximately 1.6 billion learners in 192 nations. It also interrupted education in Africa and the effects will be alluded to by the study in one of the area. The study revealed that there is great need for educational system 21st modernisations. The nations went through a tough time to maintain the educational activities as the immune systems of most school children among adults, and other learners was weak, thereby affecting their health. The Pandemic did not affect the educational system alone, it also had negative effects on lives of the citizenry and on the business organisations; and it influenced the supply chain due to global lockdowns. The study investigated on the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on education management, as well as end of year results, and to proffer ways of managing education in future pandemic times. For this purpose, data were gathered through primary sources; questionnaires and interviews by 246 respondents comprising of teachers, learners, parents, school administration, and ministry of education officials. Some observations were also made for the purposes of observing social distancing practices in class and some other practices of containing the spread of the pandemic such as masking up, sanitizing and temperature checks on school entrance. Secondary sources such as published journals, thesis, textbooks, reports, newspaper articles and the internet were used, that enabled the investigator to understand better the effects of the pandemic on education. Respondents were selected using both probability and non-probability sampling. Purposive sampling was employed to select respondents at the school admin and ministry of education to enable the investigator to generalise findings from people on the ground, who have the real information required, who are knowledgeable for the study’s aim. Stratified and snowball techniques were used to select parents and pupils. The investigator used the mixed method research design, where the study combined quantitative and qualitative research.