Chief take Dokora to task over unqualified teachers in Lupane

Chief Mabhikwa of Lupane took Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora to task as he demanded establishment of a teacher training college in the province.

Matabeleland North is the only province in the country without a training college.

This has led to deployment of scores of non Ndebele speaking teachers and a host of temporal teachers.

Speaking at the handed over of the $1.5 million China-Africa Friendly Primary School to government in Lupane on Saturday, Mabhikwa  said education standards in the province will continue to be low as they have no training college.

"We do not have the qualified teachers to teach at this new school and other schools because we have no teacher's training college in this part of the country.

" If we could be assisted to establish one then we will be able to have them teaching the children. Without a college education standards will continue to be low," he said.

The  new school will cater for children from more than 700 households and has a capacity of housing 320 pupils at the moment.

Dokora said skirted the issue and said teachers should have decent accommodation.

"We're aware of the fact teachers' houses are a challenge. The town board should exercise its mandate. We must deal with this problem head on.

"We need more open land and stands so that when we embark on those joint ventures we should make sure teachers have accommodation. We must look after our teachers because education is important".
He added.

"I'm aware that Members of Parliament in the relevant Portfolio Committee came here and one of their observations relates to the scarcity of social services to enable this town to grow.

"In a small way this school and the other schools to follow is one of our ways of saying we want the town to grow".