Chronicle Editor
Michael Magoronga, Midlands Correspondent
Authorities in Kwekwe District have raised concern over deployment of non-Ndebele speaking Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers in predominant Ndebele speaking parts of the district.
Located at the heart of the country, Kwekwe District is home to a number of ethnic groups and languages.
Speaking during a Zibagwe RDC full council meeting recently, Ward 29 Councillor Willard Moyo said it is worrisome that ECD learners in Silobela, a Ndebele speaking area, were being taught by non-Ndebele speaking teachers.
“Silobela is a Ndebele speaking area and our children need Ndebele speaking teachers to take them for ECD. We cannot have such young children being taught in another language because they cannot even communicate. We are shocked that this is happening at a time when Government has emphasized that only teachers that can speak the local language should be engaged to teach ECD pupils,” said Cllr Moyo.
His Ward 9 counterpart, Emmanuel Tshuma also raised the same concern.
“The situation is very bad because the teachers cannot even utter a single Ndebele word yet they are being deployed to Ndebele speaking communities where they are expected to teach in Ndebele,” said Cllr Tshuma.
The matter also cropped out during a Kwekwe District Stakeholders meeting where stakeholders called for the decentralisation of the teacher recruitment process.
Kwekwe District Schools Inspector Mr Herbert Maziriri, while acknowledging there was a shortage of Ndebele speaking teachers in the district, said their hands were tied.
“As a district we are in need of 24 Ndebele speaking teachers but it is unfortunate that there is nothing we can do in addressing the issue at district level since all the recruitment procedures are done in Harare. We can only replace teachers who have retired or died but the recruitment of new teachers is done at national level,” said Mr Maziriri.
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