Thousands of teachers to be re-deployed

Sunday Mail Reporter

Government will redeploy thousands of teachers, while others will go for re-training as part of measures to improve the quality of education in line with the new curriculum to be introduced when schools open this week.The re-deployment stems from realisation that some teachers in primary schools were trained for secondary education and vice versa. The Sunday Mail understands that teachers who hold non-teaching qualifications or degrees from other fields will be equipped with teaching skills.

Re-training and re-deployment of teachers comes amid recent revelations that at least 10 000 teaching staff will be recruited this year to fill the gap created by the recent introduction of Early Childhood Development Learning.

Zimbabwe has more than 8 000 schools manned by almost 200 000 teachers of whom more than 80 percent are qualified.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora last week said Phase Two of the new curriculum implementation entailed, among other things, re-deployment and further training of teachers.

“We have, for instance, thousands of graduands from different fields who are in our classes but they are not qualified teachers; thus we have made an arrangement with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education to ensure that they are trained,” he said.

Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education Dr Sylvia Utete Masango said as of last week, about 450 teachers trained to teach at primary school level had been identified for re-training in Early Childhood Development.

“Our human resources officers have identified 450 teachers who were trained in general teaching so we are sending them back for training in ECD,” she said. “Some of our teachers were trained in secondary education teaching, but are teaching at primary level and vice versa. We are working to ensure that everyone is properly placed.”

The new curriculum was piloted in 2016 and goes into full implementation this year. It will see introduction of nine new learning areas for primary education, including the introduction of science, technology, engineering and mathematics at that level.

Vocational training in driving, building, welding and agriculture will constitute part of the syllabus.