Teacher Pupil ratio, cause for concern.

Teacher pupil ratio in most primary and secondary schools in Zimbabwe currently stood at 1:50 and in some extreme cases one teacher to 80 learners, a scenario which definitely compromises quality of the end result.

Just imagine how parents are traumatized and tormented by just one or two kids of ECD level at home, what about the teacher who is expected to take good care of 80 of such notorious kids.25 to 30 learners is quiet a reasonable number which a teacher can effectively handle.

Two years ago, Government through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education ordered the freezing of teacher recruitment citing financial constraints. This did not only affect newly qualified teachers waiting for employment but also learners and the few teachers who are carrying heavy loads covering up for those classes without teachers.

Researchers have observed that there are quiet a good number of factors that affect pupils' participation and performance due to large classes. These factors include low participation, unnecessary movements, breaking out of fights during lessons, scramble for limited resources, failure to participate in groups and domination by other pupils during group work among other plethora of factors.

The teacher cannot effectively attend to the needs of all the learners as some slow learners need one on one interaction with the teacher to master some problematic concepts. The classroom practitioner cannot also effectively give written exercises to 80 learners and mark all of them before giving them new work.

Large class sizes does not allow for critical thinking, it stifles student's creativity when activity based and child centered methods are not used.

Although the newly introduced curriculum sounds good, it has received a lot of criticism from different stakeholders including teachers themselves. Teachers are complaining that the new curriculum has increased their workload as it brought new learning areas with a lot of content and to make matters worse with no teaching materials. According to Minister Dokora, the new curriculum ushers in a paradigm shift to the education system. It will expose the learner to the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and Heritage Studies. In addition learners will be exposed to life and work learning contexts through the life skills orientation programs.

The curriculum is also geared at improving quality and access to education from infant to secondary levels.

Some School Development Committees (SDCs) in urban primary schools have recently resorted to employing unemployed qualified teachers to teach classes which for a long time have not had teachers. These SDC are responsible in salaries and other expenses towards the recruited teacher. This initiative is noble as it enhances pass rate and reduces pressure on teachers. There is therefore need for other SDCs to follow suit and come to the rescue of their children before the situation is of hand.

Teachers' Unions which include Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) are also appealing to the Government to unfreeze recruitment of teachers so as to improve performance in the Education sector.