Acute teacher shortage in Matabeleland

Andile Tshuma/Kudzai Chikiwa, Chronicle Reporters

MATABELELAND is facing an acute teacher shortage, with some schools reportedly having three, often unqualified teachers, taking classes from ECD up to Grade Seven.

In an interview recently, Matabeleland South Provincial Education Director Mr Lifias Masukume said a number of schools in the province were in dire need of teachers as the few available teachers were being overwhelmed.

He said some schools in Insiza and rural Gwanda have only three teachers per school. 

“Primary schools like Jese, Tshabezi and Konongwe have three teachers each to teach all the grades. 

“A single teacher is supposed to teach three different grades which is a lot of work and as such compromises quality.

In the case of a teacher taking ECD A, ECD B and RDE 3, the lessons preparation becomes really cumbersome,” said Mr Masukume. 

He said teachers working under such conditions easily burn-out thereby negatively affecting the learning of pupils.

“We got 300 teachers during the last Government recruitment and deployment exercise so we hope that we will be given more teachers soon”, said Mr Masukume. 

He said it was unfortunate that the Government system was still using an old rule introduced during the colonial era which stipulated that a school with a population of less than 130 pupils could be run by three teachers.

Mr Masukume said the new curriculum needed a different approach because teachers now need to spend more time with pupils and as such it is no longer feasible for a teacher to teach three different classes at primary school.

He said the shortage of teachers was contributing to the poor pass rate in the province.

Meanwhile, authorities at Deli Primary School in Matabeleland North province have been forced to employ an unqualified teacher to teach an ECD class because of a shortage of ECD teachers in the province.

In an interview during a donation of asbestos sheets to the school by the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) recently, an official at the school said they had no option but to employ an unqualified teacher to teach the ECD class.

Asked to comment, Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Edgar Moyo said the Ministry was aware of the shortage of teachers but Government was constrained by lack of resources.

“We are aware of the situation that these schools are facing but sometimes financial issues limit us. We have just completed the recruitment of 3 000 teachers and among those teachers were ECD teachers. We filled those positions based on need and proper regional representation. However, due to economic challenges, we cannot fill all gaps at once hence we do it in stages,” he said.

Deputy Minister Moyo said the shortage of teachers was a national problem especially at satellite schools. — @andile_tshuma/—@tamary98