Why Zimbabwe does not have enough qualified Ndebele primary school teachers

I volunteered to pay for a teacher standing in front of me that – do you have children who want to train as teachers because we have shortage of teachers. They said they do not want to be teachers; she wanted to become a nurse. She does not want to be an engineer but wants to be a nurse. So we have got a problem as a country and in that particular region, we have got a problem of no recruitment into the higher and tertiary education. That is a big challenge. That is why we have low pass rates because a child understands a subject when he/she is taught in the mother tongue. We have a problem and I am appealing to Members of Parliament, those from where the minority languages are out of the 16 languages. We have got an appeal and we are appealing to you to assist us to make sure that we market the colleges that can train teachers for us. I thank you Mr. President.

HON. SEN. B. MPOFU: Thank you Mr. President for allowing me to ask a supplementary question. Thank you Hon. Minister for the response. I wanted to find out from the Minister if this is a confirmation that there is no unemployment of primary school teachers of Ndebele dissent. Thank you.

THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (HON. E. NDLOVU): Thank you Mr. President. I do not think there are facts there. It is a talk that is very prevalent in our society. The truth must be told that we have got a screen in the office. Because of the ICT computers and software that we have, all the teachers that graduate register with the Ministry. After registration with the Ministry – we have transferred that register to the Public Service Commission which has got a register of all the teachers that have graduated. I am yet to be informed that there are Ndebele teachers that are available that have not been deployed. If the Member of the Senate has got the list, he can afford me at my office just across, at Ambassador House, so that we use that list; but on our screens we are told that we do not have Ndebele teachers, we do not have Venda teachers, we do not have Kalanga, Sotho, Ndau and Tonga teachers.

They are in short supply. There are a lot of teachers who claim to have knowledge of those languages and when we deploy them there we find that they do not have. That has caused a lot of trouble for us because the teacher will be there for three months and then he applies to change the school. They use that trick in order to be deployed. I would really appreciate those Ndebele teachers that have not been employed, that have not been engaged. I thank you.

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