Perpetua Murungweni
Parents in Masvingo who attended the curriculum review consultations organized by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education (MoPSE) have rejected the implementation of Continuous Assessment of Learning Activities (CALAs) demanding that government should provide enough resources in schools for kids to do partake in the programme.
CALAs are part of a revolution from the old knowledge-based final examinations model to a competence-based exit profile evaluation for Grade Seven, Ordinary Level and Advanced Level learners introduced in 2015.
During the curriculum review consultations held on May 23 and 24, 2023, parents and guardians at Mucheke High school said CALAs were poorly implemented by government as parents cannot afford resources required for the learning activities.
“As parents, we do not want CALAs in schools because we cannot afford the resources that are needed for the programmes to be done. We can only accept CALAs if government provides resources in schools.
“If government does not issue resources in every school what it means is the CALA is exclusive to learners from little income families who could not afford it, contrary to its principle of inclusivity,” said Fungai Taruberekera.
Another parent at Don Bosco Primary School said that parents don’t want cala because it’s very expensive to parents and guardians, who have to pay money for every cala project that the kids are doing.
“After paying school fees we have to pay money for every Cala project that our children are doing because, we don’t have the resources at home and its very expensive,” said Brighton Shava.
Shava also said that most of the learners are benefiting nothing from the cala because most is the work is being done by the parents due to lack of resources.
“We don’t want the cala as most of our kids are not benefiting from it due to lack of resources, in most cases we end doing the research on behalf of our kids maybe at work where we can access the internet or at our friends’ home,”
