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Govt to increase number of teachers' training colleges - Murwira
03 Oct 2018 at 07:29hrs | Views
THE MINISTER of Higher and Tertiary Education Science and Technological Development Amon Murwira has said the government will increase the number of teachers training colleges in the country so as to meet the teachers demand in schools.
Murwira made the remarks in parliament during senate.
"It is true we train teachers. We train teachers so that they go and further train our children. We actually want to increase the number of colleges training teachers. What is our reasoning? Our reasoning is that we should never confuse the low capacity in the economy to absorb teachers for plenty of teachers. I think statistically Zimbabwe has a shortage of teachers, but the capability of the economy to absorb them might be something else," he said.
"I always say it is better to have my certificate and wait for an opportunity than an opportunity to come when I am not prepared for it. We always say a person would say, 'we do not have jobs' and then I ask them which job and they will say, 'I saw that there is an engineering job somewhere there.' I will then say 'are you an engineer' and they will say 'no.' That person has excluded themselves from that. What we are saying is that our job is to train teachers and we will continue training them. We are hopeful; not only hopeful but we are auctioning an economy that is going to grow and is going to demand a lot of teachers."
He said their projections show that they will be plenty of places, they are already plenty of places for teachers but just note to finance them but we are looking at the economy.
"So, the policy is we will train people and we will continue training them, why? It is better to not have a job but with your qualifications. What we are also doing to the education sector just to allay your fears is that we want an education system that produces goods and services. If I have trained you as an engineer and my hope is that after you have finished you are going to do some engineering. When you finish you say ahh but now give me a job when I am expecting something from you," he said.
"We knew that it was a problem of our education system, so the policy now is that all our education system must follow a cycle which we call 5.0. We shall teach, we shall research, we shall do consultancy, we shall do innovation, and we shall do industry, so these are 5 points. If we train a person with teaching, with research, with community service, with innovation, with industry this education will cause industry and will reduce the numbers of people who say give me a job. In actually fact, we as a society would say we trained you give us a job. So, on a policy level I think I have explained our education policy now but we are also saying we will continue training teachers because we do not have enough."
Murwira made the remarks in parliament during senate.
"It is true we train teachers. We train teachers so that they go and further train our children. We actually want to increase the number of colleges training teachers. What is our reasoning? Our reasoning is that we should never confuse the low capacity in the economy to absorb teachers for plenty of teachers. I think statistically Zimbabwe has a shortage of teachers, but the capability of the economy to absorb them might be something else," he said.
"I always say it is better to have my certificate and wait for an opportunity than an opportunity to come when I am not prepared for it. We always say a person would say, 'we do not have jobs' and then I ask them which job and they will say, 'I saw that there is an engineering job somewhere there.' I will then say 'are you an engineer' and they will say 'no.' That person has excluded themselves from that. What we are saying is that our job is to train teachers and we will continue training them. We are hopeful; not only hopeful but we are auctioning an economy that is going to grow and is going to demand a lot of teachers."
He said their projections show that they will be plenty of places, they are already plenty of places for teachers but just note to finance them but we are looking at the economy.
"So, the policy is we will train people and we will continue training them, why? It is better to not have a job but with your qualifications. What we are also doing to the education sector just to allay your fears is that we want an education system that produces goods and services. If I have trained you as an engineer and my hope is that after you have finished you are going to do some engineering. When you finish you say ahh but now give me a job when I am expecting something from you," he said.
"We knew that it was a problem of our education system, so the policy now is that all our education system must follow a cycle which we call 5.0. We shall teach, we shall research, we shall do consultancy, we shall do innovation, and we shall do industry, so these are 5 points. If we train a person with teaching, with research, with community service, with innovation, with industry this education will cause industry and will reduce the numbers of people who say give me a job. In actually fact, we as a society would say we trained you give us a job. So, on a policy level I think I have explained our education policy now but we are also saying we will continue training teachers because we do not have enough."
Source - Byo24News
