Opinion / Columnist
Failure Rate in Matebeleland South Schools: More Needs To Be Done
15 Feb 2015 at 10:10hrs | Views
A lot has been said, about the low pass rate in a number of Mateleland South schools. It is no secret that a number of primary schools did not perform well in the 2015 examinations. This has led many people to come up with a variety of reasons behind the poor performances, with some coming forward with the deployment of Shona in the province as the main reason behind this pathetic performance. Having worked in the province for nine years before I left the country I beg to differ, as Shona speaking teachers constitute just a third of the total staffing in the province.
Personally, I strongly feel that the poor exam performances are as a result of poor leadership by the school heads. I wish to point out that this state of affairs does not only affect Matabeleland South, rather, the majority of our rural schools are swimming in the same boat, as they are poorly managed. The majority of those rural school heads have no clue what so ever what running a school is all about. Furthermore, the majority of them do not have passion in their work. In my nine years teaching in Matobo District, I know of school heads whose main domain was the consumption of alcohol. They were not concerned about moving their schools forward. All they did was rushing to the local beer store soon after work. Some even visited the place before school ended and only came back after midnight or in the wee hours of the morning.
It's a very unfortunate situation in that the parents, some who are same illiterate, rely on these school heads for direction. I guess it is a question of a blind man leading another blind man. It's not surprising that there are some schools that have been stagnant for a long time in terms of infrastructural development. For children to do well in class they need a favourable teaching and learning environment. Both the children and the teachers need this. Without good facilities, good teachers always come and leave the school resulting in a high teacher turn over, something not conducive for good results. Consequently this implies that children are always with new teachers, which is not a good situation for consistency purposes. For teachers to perform well they need good accommodation, clean water and many other things. The same goes to say with the children. For them to do well in class they need proper classrooms, classroom furniture, books, sports equipment and so forth.
A visit to the majority of those rural primary schools will reveal that, 35 years after independence a greater number of children still sit on dirty floors in class while some of them still have to attend classes under trees. It is very difficult for these children to come out with good grades under such difficult conditions. To make orange juice, one requires oranges. However, the situations the majority of these rural kids operate in, is akin to giving someone lemons and then ask them to make orange juice, which highly impossible. One thing for sure though, from my experiences of teaching in those poor rural schools is the fact that there are lots of very gifted children out there. All they need is a good environment for them to demonstrate their true potentials. Given the right environment, these children have the capacity to match their urban counterparts. I therefore urge all Zimbabweans to play an active role in helping develop these schools.
As a society, we now need to make a paradigm shift from the notion that donors are people from the Western World only. It's disappointing that some of our people would never lift a finger to help someone. We need to move away from this thinking. Some of the developed countries in the world are where they are today largely to the integral role played by volunteers. In developed countries such as Canada, the UK, Australia, the US, Germany and many more, people always donate their time, energy, resources and money to help children. Having been living in Canada for over fifteen years now, I must say I deeply admire the manner in which people always come together to raise funds for a variety of children's programs for free. Zimbabwe therefore needs to move away from the notion that one can only work for money. It pains knowing that there lots of Zimbabweans who have made it in life, but they never think of giving back to their own communities. Also, giving back is not in terms of monetary terms only, but one can give their time to help raise funds for children's activities. To get out of the mess Zimbabwe is in right now, the country needs men and women and not boys and girls.
The ministry of education also has to take blame for the poor performances in the majority of those rural schools. The ministry needs to review its promotion procedure. Having a university does not automatically make one a great school head. From my own observations, a number of those rural school heads are clueless in as far as leadership is concerned. This is despite the fact that having a university degree is a pre-requisite to gaining promotion. I know of one secondary school in the Matobo District area where I was stationed, that had never had even a single student passing at least 5 'O' Levels. But that school head still went on to be promoted to the District Education Offices on the basis of having a university degree and also on the basis of him hailing from that area. This is one aspect that is destroying many schools in Matobo. Let's promote men and women who have the interest of the children and the communities they serve, regardless of where they come from. It pains me that some of those school heads hardly spend a full week at school often away on useless assignments. A number of them operate on a one man show where they are the head and the deputy at the same time. They never learn how to delegate duties to their subordinates so as to grant themselves time to gallivant all over the show.
One more thing of concern is the structure of the Bachelor's Degree in Administration being offered by the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU). The program is rather too academic with lots of irrelevant courses. If I were to be asked to design the program's structure I would come up with components such as community development, motivation, community and resource mobilization, child protection, leadership, proposal writing, monitoring and evaluation as theses the rural heads are bound to use all these skills in their day to day to running of their schools. For instance a number of these heads cannot even motivate their heads with the majority of them still embedded in the old fashioned way where they use intimidation towards their teachers. It is not their fault as they are not aware of the true meaning of leadership, which is in essence the ability to inspire. As school heads, they ought to have the ability to inspire their teachers, the parents and the children in the school.
Even though I have been away from home for some time, I still however still follow events in schools back in Zimbabwe, thanks to the media and advanced technology. One thing that saddens me is the continued rise of school children by their teachers. The trend is prevalent in rural secondary schools. It is painful especially taking into cognizance the fact that teachers ought to be in-loco parentis. All children ought to feel very safe in school. The most painful part is the fact in most of these cases the teachers always get away with it. In some instances these teachers are only punished by being transferred to another school. To protect all our children in our schools I urge the ministry of education and other relevant ministries to adopt a child protection policy where anyone hoping to work with children, women, the disabled and the elderly has to provide a police criminal background check and a vulnerable sector check. This is in order for us to protect our most vulnerable groups in society. In Canada where I live and work, that is the trend. If you intend to work anywhere near children you have to provide a police background check and a vulnerable sector check. There is no compromise on this. It's high time we adopted the same policy in Zimbabwe so as to protect our children. Our children should be left to enjoy their childhood free from abuse. This should apply to teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, maids, etc.
In conclusion, touched by the lack of resources in the majority of our poor rural schools in Zimbabwe, in December 2012 I set up and registered a children's charitable trust. Our main thrust is to help enhance the quality of education and learning in these institutions by helping them create a favourable environment. We do this by helping them with proper classrooms, teachers cottages, classroom furniture, boreholes for clean water, books, computers, sports equipment and sanitary pads for our girl children as we wish them to enjoy their womanhood free from shame (currently, a number of them use tree leaves as pads due to poverty). We are located in Bulawayo and currently work with six districts namely, Binga, Bubi, Matobo, Mutasa, Tsholotsho and Umguza. Our intention is to help make a big difference in these schools. We are a 100% volunteer led organisation as our aim is to ensure that every penny we raise goes towards helping the schools that we assist. For more on what we do please feel free to visit us at, www.childrensvoicezimbabwe.org We are located at, 42A Joshua Mqabuko Street in Bulawayo.
We have assembled a strong team led by dedicated and devoted members who have vast experience in heading dilapidated rural schools. They also have experience in handling donor funded projects. Our team is also more than willing to run seminars in various districts of the country and share ideas on the smooth and effective running of rural schools.
Collin Nyabadza, Executive Director & Founder - The Collin Nyabadza Children's Voice Charitable Trust
Email: collinnyabadza@hotmail.com
Collin Nyabadza is a former school teacher now based in Canada. He taught for nine years at Tjewondo Primary School in Matobo District before leaving the country. He is a social commentator and Special Needs teachers with over 20 years' experience in International Development and humanitarian work. He is also a youth soccer coach in Canada and has dedicated his entire professional career promoting the rights and welfare of children especially those from disadvantaged communities. Last but not least, he is also a Rotarian.
Personally, I strongly feel that the poor exam performances are as a result of poor leadership by the school heads. I wish to point out that this state of affairs does not only affect Matabeleland South, rather, the majority of our rural schools are swimming in the same boat, as they are poorly managed. The majority of those rural school heads have no clue what so ever what running a school is all about. Furthermore, the majority of them do not have passion in their work. In my nine years teaching in Matobo District, I know of school heads whose main domain was the consumption of alcohol. They were not concerned about moving their schools forward. All they did was rushing to the local beer store soon after work. Some even visited the place before school ended and only came back after midnight or in the wee hours of the morning.
It's a very unfortunate situation in that the parents, some who are same illiterate, rely on these school heads for direction. I guess it is a question of a blind man leading another blind man. It's not surprising that there are some schools that have been stagnant for a long time in terms of infrastructural development. For children to do well in class they need a favourable teaching and learning environment. Both the children and the teachers need this. Without good facilities, good teachers always come and leave the school resulting in a high teacher turn over, something not conducive for good results. Consequently this implies that children are always with new teachers, which is not a good situation for consistency purposes. For teachers to perform well they need good accommodation, clean water and many other things. The same goes to say with the children. For them to do well in class they need proper classrooms, classroom furniture, books, sports equipment and so forth.
A visit to the majority of those rural primary schools will reveal that, 35 years after independence a greater number of children still sit on dirty floors in class while some of them still have to attend classes under trees. It is very difficult for these children to come out with good grades under such difficult conditions. To make orange juice, one requires oranges. However, the situations the majority of these rural kids operate in, is akin to giving someone lemons and then ask them to make orange juice, which highly impossible. One thing for sure though, from my experiences of teaching in those poor rural schools is the fact that there are lots of very gifted children out there. All they need is a good environment for them to demonstrate their true potentials. Given the right environment, these children have the capacity to match their urban counterparts. I therefore urge all Zimbabweans to play an active role in helping develop these schools.
As a society, we now need to make a paradigm shift from the notion that donors are people from the Western World only. It's disappointing that some of our people would never lift a finger to help someone. We need to move away from this thinking. Some of the developed countries in the world are where they are today largely to the integral role played by volunteers. In developed countries such as Canada, the UK, Australia, the US, Germany and many more, people always donate their time, energy, resources and money to help children. Having been living in Canada for over fifteen years now, I must say I deeply admire the manner in which people always come together to raise funds for a variety of children's programs for free. Zimbabwe therefore needs to move away from the notion that one can only work for money. It pains knowing that there lots of Zimbabweans who have made it in life, but they never think of giving back to their own communities. Also, giving back is not in terms of monetary terms only, but one can give their time to help raise funds for children's activities. To get out of the mess Zimbabwe is in right now, the country needs men and women and not boys and girls.
The ministry of education also has to take blame for the poor performances in the majority of those rural schools. The ministry needs to review its promotion procedure. Having a university does not automatically make one a great school head. From my own observations, a number of those rural school heads are clueless in as far as leadership is concerned. This is despite the fact that having a university degree is a pre-requisite to gaining promotion. I know of one secondary school in the Matobo District area where I was stationed, that had never had even a single student passing at least 5 'O' Levels. But that school head still went on to be promoted to the District Education Offices on the basis of having a university degree and also on the basis of him hailing from that area. This is one aspect that is destroying many schools in Matobo. Let's promote men and women who have the interest of the children and the communities they serve, regardless of where they come from. It pains me that some of those school heads hardly spend a full week at school often away on useless assignments. A number of them operate on a one man show where they are the head and the deputy at the same time. They never learn how to delegate duties to their subordinates so as to grant themselves time to gallivant all over the show.
One more thing of concern is the structure of the Bachelor's Degree in Administration being offered by the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU). The program is rather too academic with lots of irrelevant courses. If I were to be asked to design the program's structure I would come up with components such as community development, motivation, community and resource mobilization, child protection, leadership, proposal writing, monitoring and evaluation as theses the rural heads are bound to use all these skills in their day to day to running of their schools. For instance a number of these heads cannot even motivate their heads with the majority of them still embedded in the old fashioned way where they use intimidation towards their teachers. It is not their fault as they are not aware of the true meaning of leadership, which is in essence the ability to inspire. As school heads, they ought to have the ability to inspire their teachers, the parents and the children in the school.
Even though I have been away from home for some time, I still however still follow events in schools back in Zimbabwe, thanks to the media and advanced technology. One thing that saddens me is the continued rise of school children by their teachers. The trend is prevalent in rural secondary schools. It is painful especially taking into cognizance the fact that teachers ought to be in-loco parentis. All children ought to feel very safe in school. The most painful part is the fact in most of these cases the teachers always get away with it. In some instances these teachers are only punished by being transferred to another school. To protect all our children in our schools I urge the ministry of education and other relevant ministries to adopt a child protection policy where anyone hoping to work with children, women, the disabled and the elderly has to provide a police criminal background check and a vulnerable sector check. This is in order for us to protect our most vulnerable groups in society. In Canada where I live and work, that is the trend. If you intend to work anywhere near children you have to provide a police background check and a vulnerable sector check. There is no compromise on this. It's high time we adopted the same policy in Zimbabwe so as to protect our children. Our children should be left to enjoy their childhood free from abuse. This should apply to teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses, maids, etc.
In conclusion, touched by the lack of resources in the majority of our poor rural schools in Zimbabwe, in December 2012 I set up and registered a children's charitable trust. Our main thrust is to help enhance the quality of education and learning in these institutions by helping them create a favourable environment. We do this by helping them with proper classrooms, teachers cottages, classroom furniture, boreholes for clean water, books, computers, sports equipment and sanitary pads for our girl children as we wish them to enjoy their womanhood free from shame (currently, a number of them use tree leaves as pads due to poverty). We are located in Bulawayo and currently work with six districts namely, Binga, Bubi, Matobo, Mutasa, Tsholotsho and Umguza. Our intention is to help make a big difference in these schools. We are a 100% volunteer led organisation as our aim is to ensure that every penny we raise goes towards helping the schools that we assist. For more on what we do please feel free to visit us at, www.childrensvoicezimbabwe.org We are located at, 42A Joshua Mqabuko Street in Bulawayo.
We have assembled a strong team led by dedicated and devoted members who have vast experience in heading dilapidated rural schools. They also have experience in handling donor funded projects. Our team is also more than willing to run seminars in various districts of the country and share ideas on the smooth and effective running of rural schools.
Collin Nyabadza, Executive Director & Founder - The Collin Nyabadza Children's Voice Charitable Trust
Email: collinnyabadza@hotmail.com
Collin Nyabadza is a former school teacher now based in Canada. He taught for nine years at Tjewondo Primary School in Matobo District before leaving the country. He is a social commentator and Special Needs teachers with over 20 years' experience in International Development and humanitarian work. He is also a youth soccer coach in Canada and has dedicated his entire professional career promoting the rights and welfare of children especially those from disadvantaged communities. Last but not least, he is also a Rotarian.
Source - Collin Nyabadza
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