Blessing Chizhande
Sikhumbuzo Moyo in Hwange
THE Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Torerayi Moyo will tomorrow begin a tour of schools in Binga and Hwange districts, with a particular focus on disadvantaged satellite and unregistered schools.
Minister Moyo and his entourage arrived in Hwange today ahead of the tour, which will see the delegation assessing the state of infrastructure, teacher preparedness and academic performance at schools in the two districts.
The Minister said the tour was aimed at identifying challenges facing schools, particularly those in disadvantaged communities, and finding ways of addressing infrastructure and technological gaps.
“We are in Matabeleland North where we are touring schools. We are targeting the most disadvantaged schools, especially in Binga district. We are making an assessment and evaluation of the state of our infrastructure and comparing the results that were produced by these disadvantaged schools,” said Minister Moyo.
He said a major focus would be on satellite schools, many of which in Binga are yet to be registered with the Ministry.
“In a nutshell, we are looking at satellite schools. There are so many in Binga that are not yet registered with the Ministry. We shall be checking if the infrastructure is adequate and, if there are gaps, we shall recommend construction of additional classrooms and even laboratories for science subjects as well as computers,” he said.
Minister Moyo said the Ministry would also assess whether teachers were adequately prepared for the term, including checking their schemes of work.
“We will also be checking if our teachers have schemed adequately. Our expectation is that teachers should scheme for the whole term, so we will check on that and, where there are challenges, we shall give remedial work to those teachers,” he said.
He warned that disciplinary action would be taken against teachers who failed to discharge their duties.
“I must emphasise that we won’t hesitate to punish whoever misbehaves, not attending to their work in time,” said Minister Moyo.
With schools now in the third term, which is shortened by public examinations, the Minister said the delegation would also scrutinise academic performance in previous examinations.
“The third term is very short because of examinations, so we shall also be checking on schools’ performances in the previous examinations.
“We want to see if there are schools that have registered zero percent pass rates and we should know why those results were posted. We want our teachers to be open with us and tell us why they are producing those results,” he said.
Minister Moyo said Government would also accelerate the rollout of Starlink kits to satellite schools as part of efforts to bridge the digital divide between disadvantaged schools and those in urban areas.
He, however, said schools would first need to have reliable power supplies, particularly those located outside the national electricity grid.
“We shall also be rolling out Starlink kits to satellite schools, but before we do that, we should provide solar kits, especially to those schools that are not connected to the national grid,” he said.
Minister Moyo said the Starlink kits had been provided to the Ministry by President Mnangagwa as part of efforts to enhance access to technology and improve the quality of education.
“The Starlink kits were provided to the Ministry by our President because he values education. For his vision to be realised in 2030, we should invest heavily in education,” he said.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu