Opinion / Letters
Zimbabwe must fire under-performing Teachers
12 Jun 2017 at 17:17hrs | Views
The Editor,
With so many teachers graduating every year from Teacher's Training Colleges That have mushroomed across the country, the government must put into place a system of hiring only highly qualified and competitive teachers; starting with the principal.
The government must come up with reforms that make it easier to fire bad teachers. There is no need to shield teachers producing mediocre results year in year out. The parents must demand results or else withdraw their students from failing schools. There are excellent teachers today heading cattle because there are no vacancies. It is a pity that most vacancies are occupied by non-performing teachers because of the stupid first-in last-out policy. Just because you got a teaching post first does not mean you cannot be removed for non-performance. Simply, fire bad teachers.
The unions who are shielding mediocrity must be ashamed of themselves. Zimbabwe sits on number 157 out of the 187 countries ranked by the UN Education index. We are ranked behind South Africa! Despite all the despise we have towards South Africa. Poorly performing teachers must be fired - it is just common sense.
Teachers like any other professionals must take a certification exam and renew it after every so often. My observation has been that after Teacher's Training, most teachers take on a teaching job and never bother improving themselves. Their hotspots are local townships where they hang out, drinking beer, and chasing girls - usually school children. Some of them even ask other students to grade fellow student's homework for them. This is a shame in a country with thousands of graduate teachers failing to get job. Government must immediately make the profession competitive and only hire performers.
Another approach is to get rid of ZIMSEC exam and let an independent body (like SAT) make the student assessment. The schools will be ranked by results of such an assessment and non-performers must be fired. The independent body can be from Zimbabwe, it does not have to be the corrupt Ministry of Education.
Keeping non-performers has a corrosive effect on an entire educational system–on one hand demoralized performing teachers, on the other hand poor students? What motivation does a performing teacher has when it is impossible to fire mediocre teachers? We know that most teachers are average that is why they ended up teachers anyway, but firing the 5% non-performers will send a good message.
Sincerely,
Sam Wezhira
With so many teachers graduating every year from Teacher's Training Colleges That have mushroomed across the country, the government must put into place a system of hiring only highly qualified and competitive teachers; starting with the principal.
The government must come up with reforms that make it easier to fire bad teachers. There is no need to shield teachers producing mediocre results year in year out. The parents must demand results or else withdraw their students from failing schools. There are excellent teachers today heading cattle because there are no vacancies. It is a pity that most vacancies are occupied by non-performing teachers because of the stupid first-in last-out policy. Just because you got a teaching post first does not mean you cannot be removed for non-performance. Simply, fire bad teachers.
The unions who are shielding mediocrity must be ashamed of themselves. Zimbabwe sits on number 157 out of the 187 countries ranked by the UN Education index. We are ranked behind South Africa! Despite all the despise we have towards South Africa. Poorly performing teachers must be fired - it is just common sense.
Teachers like any other professionals must take a certification exam and renew it after every so often. My observation has been that after Teacher's Training, most teachers take on a teaching job and never bother improving themselves. Their hotspots are local townships where they hang out, drinking beer, and chasing girls - usually school children. Some of them even ask other students to grade fellow student's homework for them. This is a shame in a country with thousands of graduate teachers failing to get job. Government must immediately make the profession competitive and only hire performers.
Keeping non-performers has a corrosive effect on an entire educational system–on one hand demoralized performing teachers, on the other hand poor students? What motivation does a performing teacher has when it is impossible to fire mediocre teachers? We know that most teachers are average that is why they ended up teachers anyway, but firing the 5% non-performers will send a good message.
Sincerely,
Sam Wezhira
Source - Sam Wezhira
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