'Give teachers adequate teaching resources'

PROGRESSIVE Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has urged the government to provide adequate teaching resources for the reviewed education curriculum when schools open tomorrow.

PTUZ Matabeleland South provincial chairperson Urgent Moyo yesterday said: "The crucial issue of resources to facilitate gradual and successful implementation of the updated curriculum is important."

Moyo said there was need to constantly review the curriculum.

"In the foregoing, there is need to allocate resources to this effect in the 2019 budget and harness donor funds to this effect," he said.

PTUZ's concerns came after Primary and Secondary Education minister Paul Mavima last year declared that there was no going back on the new curriculum which was implemented by his predecessor, Lazarus Dokora.

Parents and guardians had hoped that Mavima would do away with the new curriculum when he replaced Dokora.

However, Mavima said the new curriculum was a product of recommendations made by the Nziramasanga Commission set up in 1998 under the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Education and Training.

The commission was chaired by veteran educationist Caiphas Nziramasanga.

Government released $9 million for the new educational materials to be used, particularly by schools in rural communities.

The new curriculum was introduced at the beginning of 2017 and transitional classes — early childhood development, Grade 1, Grade 3, Form 1, Form 3 and Lower Six — are implementing it.

Teachers and pupils have been complaining that the new curriculum had increased their workload at the same time the government has not provided adequate resources for the full implementation of the programme.