Abstract-The thrust of the paper is on the activities that have taken place in Zimbabwe concerning the formulation of a plausible national language policy. The paper looks at how the current Zimbabwe's language situation affects its social, economic, political and educational development. The paper begins by tracing the history of language activities in Zimbabwe from the pre-colonial era and linking such activities with those that are taking place currently and how such activities have had an influence in development. The paper problematizes the idea of language policy and planning activities taking place in Zimbabwe through focusing on the suggestions, declarations, recommendations and acts that have so far been put in place concerning the language issues. The paper concludes by scrutinizing the link between multilingualism, politics of the day and meaningful development.

A variety of instructional strategies were devised to ensure continuity in education during the COVID-19 lockdown. This paper interrogates the exclusion of learners in rural settings of Zimbabwe as a result of the methods of teaching that were adopted by the government during the COVID-19 lockdown. The paper seeks to answer the question; how are the strategies meant to ensure continuity in education during the lockdown excluding learners in rural settings? The strategies that were adopted by the government have been identified to be contributing to the exclusion of learners in rural settings. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews from 20 teachers who teach in rural areas at two of Zimbabwe’s ten provinces. The interviews were done as a follow-up to the approaches of remote teaching adopted during the lockdown. The study argues that the adoption of uniform approaches to teaching and learning throughout the country during COVID-19 lockdown would not suffice as the functionality of each approach depends on the infrastructure and the economic conditions characteristic of each particular geographical location. The strategies adopted during the pandemic in a low-income country like Zimbabwe should not be permanent but should simply be an emergency response. Learners in rural settings are bound to be excluded in education during the pandemic if policymakers enact ‘one size fits all’ approaches meant for abrupt implementation. Strategies that suit the idea of emergency remote teaching during the pandemic are the most favourable.

Background: In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, schools were forced to close indefinitely with no clue as to when they would reopen. Upon school closures, remote teaching was adopted, with online teaching becoming the most preferred mode of instruction, yet the Information Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure was not adequate enough across the country.Aim: This article scrutinises the remote teaching approaches that were put in place in Zimbabwe in response to the closure of schools during the COVID-19 lockdown. The article investigates how the adopted approaches were suitable for conditions in rural settings.Setting: The study looks at the challenges faced in the implementation of remote teaching during COVID-19 school closures in rural areas of Matabeleland provinces in Zimbabwe.Methods: The study adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach to analyse the teaching approaches that were put in place by the government and other stakeholders. Twenty teachers from 20 rural schools drawn equitably from two provinces, Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North, were interviewed on the shortcomings of these remote teaching approaches.Results: The results revealed that the remote teaching approaches that were put in place excluded learners in rural settings. This is because of the challenges in infrastructure, economic condition and restrictions on remote teaching approaches imposed by the government.Conclusion: As Zimbabwe is facing economic hardships and infrastructure development challenges, it was supposed to adopt emergency remote teaching instead of long-term approaches. A variety of approaches that suit specific physical environments should have been adopted instead of sticking to only one throughout the country.

Online newspapers have taken centre stage in the media as technology advances, and this has seen newspaper readers moving away from reading printed copies to accessing them on their electronic gadgets. On electronic gadgets, online newspaper readers are also given a platform to make their own comments after reading such copies. It has been observed that in making comments, newspaper readers use pseudonyms. The thrust of this paper therefore is to analyse the meaning and etymology of pseudonyms that are used by commentators on articles in online newspapers in Zimbabwe. The paper also examines the circumstances that give rise to such pseudonyms. In analysing the meaning, the etymology and the circumstances giving rise to such pseudonyms, the discussion revolves around issues to do with history, politics, heroism, and other current affairs of Zimbabwe. The pseudonyms that are analysed here were taken from newspapers that include The Chronicle, The Sunday News, The Herald, Daily News, Newsday, Bulawayo24 and New Zimbabwe that were published between the 1 January and the 31 May 2016. In selecting these newspapers, an effort was made to strike a balance between those that are pro-government and those that explicitly criticise the Zimbabwean government in order to ensure balance regarding politics, history and heroism. A group of pseudonyms from online newspapers was collected and academics were asked to complete questionnaires in order for the researcher to get a broad understanding of the meaning and history of those names. The names were then be analysed on the basis of the thematic pattern(s) that emerged from the information given. The paper concludes by explaining the circumstances that give rise to pseudonyms, with the major conclusion drawn that self-naming in online newspapers is a political statement because most issues in Zimbabwe revolve around politics.

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