adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
Beitbridge East paramount chief Stauze (David Mbedzi) has bemoaned the shortage of Venda teachers in Beitbridge District, saying it has negatively affected the pass rate in most primary schools.
He said it was important for children in primary schools to be taught in their own home languages.
There are over 15 primary schools in Beitbridge district and most teach Ndebele due to a shortage of Venda teachers.
Though the district is cosmopolitan, Venda is the dominant language, with Shangani and Sotho speakers concentrated on the far eastern and western parts respectively.
Chief Stauze said the Government should train more teachers, and deploy teachers conversant in other languages apart from Ndebele and Shona as enshrined in the constitution.
“We have a great challenge in this area of very few teachers who can teach local languages,” he said. “Such a set-up has seen children scoring fairly badly in local languages and lessening their chances of going to good schools, most of which select children based on their aggregate results.
“This is making it difficult for them to compete with those from other provinces for educational honours. We have enough human resources base in our area which needs support in terms of training and adequate deployments.
“It is important to create employment for people from this region especially in the education sector.”
Online Reporter