Zimbabwe needs 25 000 more teachers, more than half for infant level

The Public Service Commission authorised 10 000 posts initially and reduced that number to 5 000 posts for the year 2022 with Treasury concurrence. Of the 5 000 posts, 3 904 have been filled and the balance of 1 096 will be filled in September, 2022.  In addition to this, another

1 454 attrition posts have since been filled. In line with e-governance thrust, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and the Public Service Commission have introduced an e-recruitment platform which requires all newly qualified teachers to register on line.

This register is used for the systematic deployment of teachers according to match between the vacant posts and the year of graduation from the Teacher Training College. Under this system, teachers within the critical skills area get deployed earlier than others with more readily available qualifications. The critical skills shortage areas are ECD, sciences, technical and vocational and indigenous languages and special needs areas. The teacher-pupil ratio is now as follows: ECD, 1: 25 pupils, junior school, 1:40, lower to secondary 1:33, O level 1:30 and A level, 1:20. These are the ideal numbers that we are expected to have in schools but we have more children in schools because of shortage of teachers and also because of the capacity of our classroom blocks.

The resource unit, visually impaired, their ratio is 1:10, special class is 1:19, hearing impaired is 1-7, intellectual challenges is 1:7, physical disabilities is 1:15 but again you find that these figures are higher in this country because of the challenges that we have in terms of the teachers that we have. For technical subjects, it is 1:100 per learning area. These are carpentry and tailoring which we do in schools.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, our classes are supposed to be half of the total numbers that are in classes and this has also caused a challenge. At present the total number of schools is 10 100 with an enrollment of more than 4.6 million pupils and a total teaching establishment of 136 000. In terms of Section 75 (4) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, these learners are entitled to be in class and they are entitled to education.

Continued next page

(222 VIEWS)