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Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
EDUCATION authorities in Manicaland have implored Government to allocate more teachers in the province, saying the 440 teacher deployed this week were a drop in the ocean.
Provincial Education Director (PED), Mr Edward Shumba said they declared 3 383 teaching vacancies and received 440 teachers, as of Wednesday.
“It is a drop in the ocean. We will continue crying out for more teachers. We have received 440 out of the 3 383 teachers needed in Manicaland,” said Mr Shumba.
He said the new teachers will help improve the student-teacher ratio, which is used as a tool to measure teacher workload, allocation of resources and the amount of individual attention any single child is likely to receive — the quality education.
The teacher-pupil ration should be 1:25 at infant level, while at junior level a class should have at least 40 pupils.
“The new teachers we have received will improve on the quality of teaching in the sense that the burden carried by their counterparts will be lessened and the conduct time with the pupils will improve. There are teachers who are overwhelmed by the number of pupils per class.
“And added to that, we believe that specialist teachers will be part of those recruited so that they can assist in the implementation of the new curriculum, and the teacher-pupil ratio will improve. We are also hoping that they will be able to give us specialist A-Level teachers in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Agriculture,” said Mr Shumba.
He said the districts worst affected by shortage of teachers are Chipinge, Nyanga and Buhera.
“It is because they are further away,” he said.
Mr Shumba also said schools opened with 70 percent of teachers reporting for duty, despite calls by their union leaders to boycott.
He expressed optimism that the situation will improve from Monday as all are expected to report for duty.
“The situation started on a fair note. Yes, we might not have had 100 percent, but we had around 70 percent attendance by teachers and pupils. Not all teachers are now at their workstations and we hope the situation will improve as from Monday.
“While the instruction says everybody should report to work on August 30, on the ground teachers are spelling out a number of problems, one being the fact that bus fares are paid in US$, which they do not have,” said Mr Shumba.
He implored School Development Committees (SDCs) to mobilise school fees as directed by Government.
“We are currently on an outreach programme discouraging the sending away of pupils over non-payment of fees. We are placing emphasis on the powers of the SDCs to ensure that they engage parents to pay fees.
“I know there have been complaints about the nature of fees, but the circular from the Permanent Secretary is quite clear that school fees should be paid on the pro-rata basis. A normal term has 60 days, and this final term has 80 day, so the increase of about 33 percent will suffice,” said Mr Shumba.
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