'Temporary teachers substandard'

GOVERNMENT should reduce the number of temporary teachers in schools as their lack of formal teacher training is affecting the standards of education in the country, teacher representatives have said.

Zimbabwe Teachers' Association chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu bemoaned government's apparent reliance on untrained teachers.

"We do not condone a situation where Zimbabwe employs people who are not trained and continues to call them teachers.  They should call them something else, relief teachers or helpers maybe," Ndlovu said.

"Clearly, it is an issue that is anathema to the country's standards of education. Students are as good as the quality of education they receive and if their teacher is substandard, the student will be substandard."

He said teacher training was necessary in order to have high quality education that in turn produced high quality students.

"A teacher must be qualified. They must go through a vigorous training process so they can understand how best to teach as well as the psychology of the child they teach.

"We are not saying don't employ temporary teachers, but we must have contingency measures to address this issue. Government needs to find ways to address the shortfall of teachers without compromising educational standards," Ndlovu said.

Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe secretary-general Raymond Majongwe said the problem lay in teachers' low salaries because most qualified teachers were opting to teach outside the country.

"This issue must be handled properly. Government must be honest, it must own up and pay proper salaries so that we retain qualified teachers. We have a shortfall of teachers because government is not paying proper salaries and so untrained teachers come in to help and they must be deployed," Majongwe said.

"When teachers are well-paid, we won't have this shortfall. As long as we have second- class salaries, we will have second-class personnel."

Contacted for comment, Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora said: "Actually, I want to expand access to education. We will be building more schools and increasing enrolment. Do those people (teacher representatives) have any qualified teachers to teach each and every child? We want to increase access to education and we want to increase that with quality education."

He added: The CSC (Civil Service Commission) has even roped in retirees and that is a positive step. Each child has the right to an education and we take in temporary teachers because we don't have enough qualified teachers."