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

Zimbabwe has recruited 3 900 teachers so far this year but it is short of another 25 300, Education Minister Evelyn Ndlovu told Parliament on Wednesday.

More than half of the teachers are for the infant level which covers ECD to Grade 2, she said.

According to her breakdown, Zimbabwe needs 25 331 teachers with 14 527 for infant level, 6 527 for junior school, 3 170 for secondary school and 1 107 for high school.

Nldovu said her ministry and the Public Service Commission had introduced an e-recruitment platform which requires all newly qualified teachers to register online.

“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,” she said.

“The critical skills shortage areas are ECD, sciences, technical and vocational and indigenous languages and special needs areas.”

MINISTERIRAL STATEMENT

DEPLOYMENT AND REGARDING OF TEACHERS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY

THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION (HON. DR. E. NDLOVU): The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is mandated to provide relevant high quality education product to all its clients through both formal and non-formal routes. One of the key resources that enable the Ministry to fulfill its mandate is availability of the teaching force for primary and secondary education.

The competence based curriculum introduced by the current Government – there are new learning areas and it demands more teachers because of that introduction of new learning areas. Since 2019, there has been a freeze on posts under which the Government announced the number of authorised new teaching posts to be filled. The other reason why there are vacant posts is because of the attrition that we experience in the teaching profession.

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