adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
TRADITIONAL leaders from Matabeleland South have called for the teaching of local languages at all primary schools in the province as specified by the education policy.
The education policy requires children at primary school level be taught in their mother tongue, especially pupils from Grade 0 up to Grade 3.
Chief Gampu whose jurisdiction covers parts of Tsholotsho and Bulilima said it was worrying that a number of teachers were not conversant in local languages of the areas where they are deployed.
“In my area which stretches through Bulilima District, children have to be taught in Kalanga but this isn’t happening. Some of the children come from absolute Kalanga communities where they speak nothing but their local language at home.
“It becomes a burden if they’re propelled to learn in Ndebele when they don’t know the language. To make matters worse, some teachers aren’t even conversant in the Ndebele language,” he said.
Chief Gampu said while primary school children had to learn in their local language, they also had to understand English language so that they would be relevant to society.
Chief Bango of Mangwe said some schools in his area had adopted the local language policy.
He said this was making the learning process simpler for pupils and the teaching process easier for teachers.
Chief Bango said the policy had to be fully implemented in schools to ensure that the performance of rural pupils improved. He said teaching in the local language was also crucial in preserving the culture of communities.
Headman Manguba of Bulilima said one of the reasons why rural pupils were backward was because the learning process was complicated for them.
“The problem is that some schools don’t even have a single person who is conversant in Kalanga. This makes the learning process difficult, especially for infants. The urban children are socialised in an English speaking environment but that’s not the case with rural children,” said Headman Manguba.
He said there was a need for education officials to make follow ups in schools to ensure that teachers and school administrators were implementing the local language policy.
Matabeleland South Provincial Education Director, Tumisang Thabela, recently pointed out that it was inevitable for the province to employ teachers from other areas due to a shortage of trained personnel.
She said the pass rates were however low because of this development.
She said children who are being taught by a teacher who is not conversant in their mother language took longer to develop.
Thabela said it also took longer for primary pupils to relate to such a teacher, let alone have an understanding of what they are learning.
She said a number of teachers were shunning rural schools especially those in remote areas which forced the Ministry to employ personnel from outside.
Thabela said in schools where local languages had been incorporated, pupils’ performance had improved.
Online Reporter