News / Education
Headmasters seek audience with Mugabe
20 Jun 2014 at 10:28hrs | Views
The National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) conference Thursday resolved to seek audience with President Robert Mugabe whom they believe is in a position to correct a reversal of Zimbabwe's education gains by minister of Primary and Secondary Education Lazarus Dokora.
In an interview with The Zimbabwe Mail at the sidelines of the Nash conference being held in Victoria Falls, Nash president, Johnson Madhuku, said all their attempts to get Dokora to the table had been fruitless and they believed even senior officials in their ministry had been instructed to snub Nash.
"As a result we have resolved to seek audience with Mugabe because we don't know what our minister is thinking, we have made every effort to meet him but each time he has ignored us and the issues we are trying to highlight to him," Madhuku said.
Close to 1000 headmasters from all secondary schools in the country are in Victoria Falls for their annual conference running under the theme "Education: an Invaluable Investment" and are deliberating on, among other things, sweeping changes in their sector they felt were harmful to the delivery of quality education.
They accuse Dokora of unilaterally making decisions in the ministry that included the banning of vacation schooling, sports during the week, payment of teacher - incentives and instructing schools to use traditional and legal courts to follow - up on school fees defaulters.
Dokora further stirred a hornet's nest with the abolishment of the teacher-grading system resulting in some teachers with 30 or more years in the profession being on equal footing with new graduates.
"If he is snubbing us, we will seek Mugabe's audience, he is trying to remove sports from the curriculum and does he think the President who appointed the minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Andrew Langa, did not know what he was doing,' said Madhuku adding that sports was an integral part of education. He said their conference this year had not been blessed by their parent ministry although a notice of the same had been put well in advance.
"We have received reports that our permanent secretary (Constance Mugwamba) is visiting schools while we are here but we invited her to officiate at our conference. Are we playing in the same team?" he asked. Yesterday officials from the Zimbabwe Teachers Association put their weight behind Nashsaying they were seeking ways of having Dokora sit down with the teachers to address their concerns.
Meanwhile Madhuku urged headmasters to advise teachers to seek and educate students on the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation.
"That is the direction our country has taken, it is a policy and we must be able to translate it to our children, we should sing it like the politicians," he said in his opening remarks of the Nash conference.
In an interview with The Zimbabwe Mail at the sidelines of the Nash conference being held in Victoria Falls, Nash president, Johnson Madhuku, said all their attempts to get Dokora to the table had been fruitless and they believed even senior officials in their ministry had been instructed to snub Nash.
"As a result we have resolved to seek audience with Mugabe because we don't know what our minister is thinking, we have made every effort to meet him but each time he has ignored us and the issues we are trying to highlight to him," Madhuku said.
Close to 1000 headmasters from all secondary schools in the country are in Victoria Falls for their annual conference running under the theme "Education: an Invaluable Investment" and are deliberating on, among other things, sweeping changes in their sector they felt were harmful to the delivery of quality education.
They accuse Dokora of unilaterally making decisions in the ministry that included the banning of vacation schooling, sports during the week, payment of teacher - incentives and instructing schools to use traditional and legal courts to follow - up on school fees defaulters.
"If he is snubbing us, we will seek Mugabe's audience, he is trying to remove sports from the curriculum and does he think the President who appointed the minister of Sports, Arts and Culture, Andrew Langa, did not know what he was doing,' said Madhuku adding that sports was an integral part of education. He said their conference this year had not been blessed by their parent ministry although a notice of the same had been put well in advance.
"We have received reports that our permanent secretary (Constance Mugwamba) is visiting schools while we are here but we invited her to officiate at our conference. Are we playing in the same team?" he asked. Yesterday officials from the Zimbabwe Teachers Association put their weight behind Nashsaying they were seeking ways of having Dokora sit down with the teachers to address their concerns.
Meanwhile Madhuku urged headmasters to advise teachers to seek and educate students on the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation.
"That is the direction our country has taken, it is a policy and we must be able to translate it to our children, we should sing it like the politicians," he said in his opening remarks of the Nash conference.
Source - Zim Mail
