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Lungile Tshuma Sunday News Correspondent
UNDER-performing school heads should be fired or forced to retire because many of them were now old and failing to adapt to the new education system, parents have said.Zimbabwe Schools Development Association and Committees (ZSDA/C) president, Mr Xolisani Dlamini, said radical measures should be taken to improve the country’s education sector and among these measures was to fire under performing school heads.
“We have been crying for long about the poor results that are being produced especially in Matabeleland,” Mr Dlamini said.
“The situation calls for a radical approach where under-performing heads should be fired or forced to retire. As parents we know for a fact that most school heads in the country hold certificates which were issued in the early 1990s. These are the same heads who are now failing to adapt to new the education system.
“The current situation calls for introduction of computer studies in schools but most school heads can’t use computers. They still want to run schools as if we are still in the 90s.”
Mr Dlamini also said if the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education found it too harsh to fire them, refresher courses should be offered to school heads so that they could adapt but if this intervention failed too to produce results they would have to be fired.
Schools in Matabeleland region have for the past years been producing poor results with last year’s results being among the worst. A total of 20 out of 134 schools in Matabeleland South Province recorded a zero percent pass rate in the Ordinary Level examinations. In Matabeleland North, 15 secondary schools recorded a zero percent pass rate.
Mr Dlamini said parents were not happy with the way the Minister Lazarus Dokora was running the ministry. He said parents were not being consulted on most policy making decisions yet they were the key stakeholders.
He said: “Results are not good at all and the ministry is not consulting us. Dokora is making some radical changes of which some of them have been very poor and detrimental to children.
“The minister should stop belittling parents because some of them have better ideas than him. Some parents are managers and they know how to bring order.
“There are people who were resettled and those areas need schools. The government on its own cannot build schools but with the help of parents this will be easy. The ministry should, therefore, engage us before they rush into making decisions.”
Mr Dlamini also challenged the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to re-introduce incentives in schools so that teachers could be motivated.
“As parents we are calling for the re-introduction of incentives. Incentives were introduced by parents because we wanted to attract the best teachers in schools.
“We can still afford to pay teacher’s incentives and at the moment incentives can help to improve our pass rate. Our teachers need motivation and as parents we say let’s give them incentives.”
Matabeleland North provincial education director, Mrs Boithatelo Mnguni, said school heads in her province had been given targets. However, she said school heads would not be fired as they were not solely to blame.
“We have given each school a target and we clearly told them that the zero percentage pass rate among Grade Sevens will not be tolerated. Mediocre performers which have been producing 40 to 50 percent were given a 10 percent rise as their target,” said Mrs Mnguni.
Asked on what measures the province would take if schools failed to meet the target she said:
“There is no punishment for poor performers. We cannot fire school heads. When they fail we will sit down with them and see what can be done. There are a number of factors that are taken into account for a school to produce poor results. There is an issue of pupils coming to school hungry and some also walk for long distances.”
Matabeleland South provincial education director, Mrs Tumisang Thabela, said she was no longer allowed to comment and referred questions to the permanent secretary who could not be reached for comment.
Online Reporter