Prosper Ndlovu and Pamela Shumba Chronicle Reporters POLITICIANS in Matabeleland should urgently push for establishment of more teacher trai...
Prosper Ndlovu and Pamela Shumba Chronicle Reporters
POLITICIANS in Matabeleland should urgently push for establishment of more teacher training colleges in the region to address the problem of deployment of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in primary schools, in particular.The increasing number of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in Matabeleland has become a thorny issue to parents and educationists, who blame the development for suppressed pass rates in the region.
Yesterday, war veterans’ leader Cde Jabulani Sibanda said the issue needed an urgent remedy and blasted the region’s political leadership for failing to lobby government to construct more teachers’ colleges in the region.
He said the country was training more teachers in other provinces outside Matabeleland.
“This is a critical issue, which if not handled well can damage the country instead of heal it. It’s important to spend more time fighting the root of the problem instead of the effects,” said Cde Sibanda.
“The problem is that we don’t have political leadership that is willing to push for the establishment of teachers’ colleges in the region. Matabeleland North has not a single teachers’ college, while Matabeleland South has only one.”
Cde Sibanda said teacher training colleges in Bulawayo alone were not making an impact as the city was a metropolitan province with people who speak different languages.
“Manicaland province has two teachers’ colleges and a polytechnic and Masvingo has three teachers’ colleges and a technical college,” he explained.
“It’s clear logic that the country is training more teachers in other provinces and that’s why we’re facing this problem.”
Bulawayo Senator Cde Angeline Masuku — who first raised the issue in Parliament this year, earning scorn from some who called her a tribalist — said pupils get distracted and lose interest in learning when taught by a teacher who cannot understand their language.
“Every teacher should understand the proper language of the community he or she operates in. A teacher should not make pupils lose their language,” she said.
“This is important for the whole country. Let’s respect each other’s languages. What can’t happen in other provinces should not happen here.”
Social commentator, playwright and film producer Cont Mhlanga said what’s important is for children to be taught in their mother language. “The problem is not the tribe of the teacher, but whether the teacher understands the language of the child,” he said.
Mhlanga added: “This isn’t about Ndebele language only, but Kalanga in Plumtree, Tonga in Binga, Sotho in Gwanda and so on.
“It doesn’t matter a teacher comes from Mhondoro or what, but that teacher should use the language understood by the child to teach any subject, be it Maths, Science or History at least up to Grade Five.”
Former Bulawayo mayor and Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Joshua Malinga said the issue had taken too long to be addressed. Cde Malinga once took objection to a police officer addressing him in Shona, insisting that English was the language of the civil service.
“It’s wrong, even from a professional point of view, for anyone who doesn’t know the child’s language to teach that subject,” he said.
“When I said this some years back, no-one supported me. The only people who understood me were the President (Cde Robert Mugabe) and the late Cdes Welshman Mabhena and Sydney Malunga. I’m happy that it’s clear to everyone now and is seen as important now.”
Bulawayo Provincial Minister of State Cde Nomthandazo Moyo said the government should introduce local languages at teacher training colleges, especially for primary school trainee teachers.
“Any teacher, especially at primary school level who will come to work in Matabeleland should be able to speak the language spoken in that area. It’s the right of every group of people in the country to be understood in their language,” she said.
“There’s no tribalism whatsoever in this issue. It’s a national concern that needs to be dealt with nationally.”
Zanu-PF secretary for education Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, a politburo member, said he was disappointed by people who always think raising Matabeleland concerns was being tribal.
“It’s government policy that no other language should be superior to the other. While I appreciate that there are no adequate teachers’ colleges in the region, I feel it’s important for the existing colleges to mix students from different backgrounds for the sake of the school children,” said Dr Ndlovu.
“No language is more important than the other and it’s an anathema to take non-Ndebele speaking teachers to teach in Matabeleland.”
Cde Ndlovu said he had since written to all the provincial chairmen and secretaries advising them of a planned tour to gather information on the language problem. A report would be prepared for the central committee, which would later be taken to congress, he said.
“The danger of just talking through the media but not addressing the root causes would render the issue a talk show. It has to be solved,” he said
Zanu-PF Matabeleland North provincial chairman Cde Richard Moyo concurred.
“That’s a serious issue that needs to be addressed. We can’t have a teacher deployed to Matabeleland who can’t speak Ndebele. Neither can we have a teacher deployed to Mashonaland who can’t speak Shona. Let this be addressed urgently,” he said.
The issue of non-Ndebele speaking teachers has been brought up at a number of fora, the latest being a workshop on indigenous languages and non-fiction writing organised by the Zimbabwe Academic and Non-fiction Authors Association in Bulawayo, where deputy provincial education director, Richard Swene, blasted the Civil Service Commission for employing primary school teachers whose first language was not Ndebele.
Last weekend, the Senior Minister of State Cde Simon Khaya Moyo revealed that he had spoken to Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cde Lazarus Dokora to discuss the engagement of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in the region.
Cde Khaya Moyo was at pains to explain that it was NOT about tribe, but having teachers — especially at primary school level — who speak the local language, whatever it is.
Educationists and analysts have accused the government of letting down the education sector by creating a handicap that could easily be avoided.
They said the language issue was partly to blame for the poor pass rate in Matabeleland schools.
POLITICIANS in Matabeleland should urgently push for establishment of more teacher training colleges in the region to address the problem of deployment of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in primary schools, in particular.The increasing number of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in Matabeleland has become a thorny issue to parents and educationists, who blame the development for suppressed pass rates in the region.
Yesterday, war veterans’ leader Cde Jabulani Sibanda said the issue needed an urgent remedy and blasted the region’s political leadership for failing to lobby government to construct more teachers’ colleges in the region.
He said the country was training more teachers in other provinces outside Matabeleland.
“This is a critical issue, which if not handled well can damage the country instead of heal it. It’s important to spend more time fighting the root of the problem instead of the effects,” said Cde Sibanda.
 |
| Cde Jabulani Sibanda |
Cde Sibanda said teacher training colleges in Bulawayo alone were not making an impact as the city was a metropolitan province with people who speak different languages.
“Manicaland province has two teachers’ colleges and a polytechnic and Masvingo has three teachers’ colleges and a technical college,” he explained.
“It’s clear logic that the country is training more teachers in other provinces and that’s why we’re facing this problem.”
Bulawayo Senator Cde Angeline Masuku — who first raised the issue in Parliament this year, earning scorn from some who called her a tribalist — said pupils get distracted and lose interest in learning when taught by a teacher who cannot understand their language.
“Every teacher should understand the proper language of the community he or she operates in. A teacher should not make pupils lose their language,” she said.
“This is important for the whole country. Let’s respect each other’s languages. What can’t happen in other provinces should not happen here.”
Social commentator, playwright and film producer Cont Mhlanga said what’s important is for children to be taught in their mother language. “The problem is not the tribe of the teacher, but whether the teacher understands the language of the child,” he said.
Mhlanga added: “This isn’t about Ndebele language only, but Kalanga in Plumtree, Tonga in Binga, Sotho in Gwanda and so on.
“It doesn’t matter a teacher comes from Mhondoro or what, but that teacher should use the language understood by the child to teach any subject, be it Maths, Science or History at least up to Grade Five.”
Former Bulawayo mayor and Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Joshua Malinga said the issue had taken too long to be addressed. Cde Malinga once took objection to a police officer addressing him in Shona, insisting that English was the language of the civil service.
“It’s wrong, even from a professional point of view, for anyone who doesn’t know the child’s language to teach that subject,” he said.
“When I said this some years back, no-one supported me. The only people who understood me were the President (Cde Robert Mugabe) and the late Cdes Welshman Mabhena and Sydney Malunga. I’m happy that it’s clear to everyone now and is seen as important now.”
Bulawayo Provincial Minister of State Cde Nomthandazo Moyo said the government should introduce local languages at teacher training colleges, especially for primary school trainee teachers.
“Any teacher, especially at primary school level who will come to work in Matabeleland should be able to speak the language spoken in that area. It’s the right of every group of people in the country to be understood in their language,” she said.
“There’s no tribalism whatsoever in this issue. It’s a national concern that needs to be dealt with nationally.”
Zanu-PF secretary for education Dr Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, a politburo member, said he was disappointed by people who always think raising Matabeleland concerns was being tribal.
“It’s government policy that no other language should be superior to the other. While I appreciate that there are no adequate teachers’ colleges in the region, I feel it’s important for the existing colleges to mix students from different backgrounds for the sake of the school children,” said Dr Ndlovu.
“No language is more important than the other and it’s an anathema to take non-Ndebele speaking teachers to teach in Matabeleland.”
Cde Ndlovu said he had since written to all the provincial chairmen and secretaries advising them of a planned tour to gather information on the language problem. A report would be prepared for the central committee, which would later be taken to congress, he said.
“The danger of just talking through the media but not addressing the root causes would render the issue a talk show. It has to be solved,” he said
Zanu-PF Matabeleland North provincial chairman Cde Richard Moyo concurred.
“That’s a serious issue that needs to be addressed. We can’t have a teacher deployed to Matabeleland who can’t speak Ndebele. Neither can we have a teacher deployed to Mashonaland who can’t speak Shona. Let this be addressed urgently,” he said.
The issue of non-Ndebele speaking teachers has been brought up at a number of fora, the latest being a workshop on indigenous languages and non-fiction writing organised by the Zimbabwe Academic and Non-fiction Authors Association in Bulawayo, where deputy provincial education director, Richard Swene, blasted the Civil Service Commission for employing primary school teachers whose first language was not Ndebele.
Last weekend, the Senior Minister of State Cde Simon Khaya Moyo revealed that he had spoken to Primary and Secondary Education Minister Cde Lazarus Dokora to discuss the engagement of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in the region.
Cde Khaya Moyo was at pains to explain that it was NOT about tribe, but having teachers — especially at primary school level — who speak the local language, whatever it is.
Educationists and analysts have accused the government of letting down the education sector by creating a handicap that could easily be avoided.
They said the language issue was partly to blame for the poor pass rate in Matabeleland schools.
- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -
The information is provided by PaHarare Exptreme using online sources and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose.
Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
- Advertisement -
