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EARLIER this year, we published elsewhere on these pages, shocking poor results of Grade Seven, Ordinary level and Advanced level examinations recorded by schools in Matabeleland North, South and Bulawayo provinces. In Gwanda District for instance, six schools recorded a zero pass rate in the 2013 Grade Seven examinations. Shockingly, officials said there was an improvement compared to 2012 when 16 of the 107 schools in the district failed to produce a single pass.
The 2013 six schools of shame were identified as Glass Block 2, Gobadema, Matshetsheni, Ngoma, Tshongogwe and Zelezele. In January, angry parents from Msithi Primary School in Filabusi summoned the school authorities for a meeting where they called for the removal of the headmaster following poor results as only one pupil passed with an aggregate of 15 units. The rest failed.
To make matters worse, a majority of pupils at secondary level in Matabeleland reportedly cannot read and write properly. In short they are illiterate despite having spent more than seven years at school. Only 10 secondary schools from Matabeleland made it into the top 100 in the 2013 Ordinary level examinations.
Various reasons were advanced to explain the poor performance of schools in the region and these ranged from lack of adequate learning facilities, shortage of teachers, few schools, incompetent and demotivated teachers and failure by pupils to value education. The results naturally shone a light on the education sector in the region with calls for an inquiry into the state of schools in Matabeleland. That debate has been reignited over the past few weeks with politicians, academics, activists, educationists and community leaders wading into the issue.
Last Saturday, the Senior Minister of State in the President’s Office, Cde Simon Khaya Moyo, said he had summoned Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Cde Lazarus Dokora, to explain the policy of engaging non-Ndebele speaking teachers in the Matabeleland region.
He said it did not make sense to have a teacher who could not even pronounce a single Ndebele word teach Grade One pupils. “It boggles the mind that you find a teacher here in Matabeleland who cannot even say salibonani, litshonanjani, then what would you expect them to teach a pupil that very language. It is just like a blind person leading another blind person, in such a situation can we say this teacher is teaching or cheating. “That is the reason I had to summon Minister Dokora to come and explain to me what they are doing to address such problems because this cannot be allowed to continue as at the end of the day we are paying that teacher essentially for nothing,” said Cde Khaya Moyo.
In seeking to find an explanation for the parlous state of the education system in Matabeleland, some politicians and educationists have pointed the finger at the deployment of non-Ndebele speaking teachers, particularly in primary schools, in the region. They contend, with a measure of authority, that the increasing number of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in Matabeleland has become a thorny issue to parents who blame the development for suppressed pass rates in the region.
In this regard, they have called for the establishment of more training colleges in the region to address the problem. To a certain extent, we are tempted to agree with them because early childhood development is crucial to children’s education and a solid foundation needs to be laid for them to succeed later in life. Primary school pupils need to be taught in their mother tongues for them to comprehend the early stages of education and we feel in this instance, the case for Ndebele-speaking teachers in the region, particularly in primary schools, is valid.
However, this cannot be taken as a blanket explanation for the poor performance of schools in the region. It is ONE of the reasons with the others being obviously poor infrastructure and a shortage of amenities such as books. Rural schools in the region are in a sorry state with children also walking long distances to the nearest school. The problem of poor performance of schools therefore needs to be addressed HOLISTICALLY with attention being given to key areas which contribute to the success of the education system in the region.
In this regard, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education needs to urgently look into the deployment of teachers to Matabeleland with preference being given to those who can speak the language of the region especially primary school teachers.
Apart from capacitating its schools, the government also needs to build more teachers’ colleges in the region to address the problem of a shortage of Ndebele-speaking teachers. We also hope the re-instatement of rural allowances for teachers will go a long way in addressing this challenge.
Online Reporter