Zim can not afford to get rid temporary teachers

THE Government has made a U-turn on its decision to freeze the recruitment of temporary teachers following indications that the country has a shortage of qualified tutors.

Last month, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture stopped recruiting temporary teachers citing the need to replace them with qualified teachers.

The ministry had also barred qualified teachers from going on leave.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Bulawayo Province Schools Merit Awards last week, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Senator David Coltart said temporary teachers were crucial to the education sector.

He said suspending them was an "ill-timed decision".

"What I should emphasise is that at the moment, we cannot expect to meet the requirements of the teaching sector," he said.

"We are far from a scenario where 100 percent of our teachers are qualified. Until we have such a scenario, it is inevitable that we have these temporary teachers."

The minister said while Government preferred qualified teachers, it would take long to normalise the education sector.

"We can't simply go and get rid of temporary teachers. It is a gradual process that can never happen overnight.

"When you go to places like Binga, you will find that most of the schools are being manned by temporary teachers.

"So, it wouldn't be sincere on our part to just try and get rid of them because we will be indirectly negating our education sector.

"As it stands, we are far from meeting the requirements of teachers. With that background, we can't honestly think of getting rid of these temporary teachers."

Meanwhile, the minister said Government would not lower passing standards of the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) in order to improve the country's overall pass rate.

Last year, the country recorded a pass rate of 25 percent with Bulawayo province recording 19,8 percent.

Senator Coltart said although most countries in the region had taken this route, his ministry would not "cheat itself".

"We know that there are some countries in the region that reduced their standards so as to improve the pass rate.

"Even Cambridge did the same. However, as a country, we are never going to take that route. Instead, we will strive to improve the quality of teaching and this includes teacher remuneration."

He added that the authorities were working on ensuring teachers carried out their duties.

He said eight million textbooks would be distributed to primary and secondary schools under the second phase of the Education Transition Fund (ETF).

"In the long run, we aim to achieve a ratio of one pupil: one textbook and it is a well-known fact that when students have their own textbooks they perform far much better.

"This, thereby, naturally means our pass rate will surely improve.
"It is not as though we are just sitting back and hoping things will go back to normal just like that. We are doing everything possible to maintain our high education standards."