adminThupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
MATABELELAND South Province has only 48 percent of teachers required for science and technology related subjects, a senior Government official has said.
Provincial Education Director, Mrs Thumisang Tabela said this on Saturday evening during a fund-raising dinner organised by Beitbridge town council.
The dinner was aimed at mobilising resources for the construction of a science laboratory at Vhembe High School in the border town.
There are 70 primary and 15 secondary schools in Beitbridge district and only four have Advanced Level classes.
Zezani High School is the only school offering a full A-Level curriculum, while others are focusing mainly on arts due to the shortage of science laboratories.
“It is important to note that as the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, our mandate is to contribute to the human capital development of this country. Further, it has become apparent that we are lagging behind on the teaching of science subjects as Matabeleland South Province,” said Mrs Tabela.
“This has been worsened by a 52 percent shortage of manpower to teach science related subjects, and in addition we are operating with just 50 percent of Mathematics teachers.
“You may also note that the new education curriculum emphasises the need to teach sciences from early childhood development stage up to the highest level. We can achieve such by empowering both the pupils and the teachers with adequate facilities including the construction of more senior laboratories”.
She said her ministry had directed that no school will have A Level classes without a proper laboratory.
Mrs Tabela said the Government was refocusing the education system in line with the 1998 Nziramasanga Commission.
“Some of the findings were that we were only looking at the interests of 20 percent of the learners, while another 80 percent was missing out,” she said.
“We then decided to refocus in making our children relevant to the demands of today’s world which centre more on innovations, and we can only do that by accelerating the teaching of pure sciences in all our schools”.
Beitbridge town secretary, Mr Loud Ramakgapola said they needed $100 000 to construct the laboratory at Vhembe High School.
He said so far they had spent $33 000 on the preliminary works and this year they had budgeted $18 000 for the same project.
“We felt it is important to mobilise resources from various partners and corporates for us to complete the project at the earliest possible time,” he said.
Online Reporter