Senator Coltart apologises to parents for teachers’ incentives

Sunday News

20 November 2011

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart has apologised to parents and guardians for compelling them to pay teachers’ incentives.

Addressing a crowd of about 500 at a rally at Nketa Hall in Bulawayo, Senator Coltart said he was “deeply sorry” that parents were being asked to supplement teachers’ salaries due to the Government’s monetary constraints, that have seen it filing to hike salaries to decent levels.

Parents and guardians have since the introduction of the controversial incentives that are prone to abuse been incensed that they are being forced to take the position of employer regardless of the fact that teachers earn little like they do.

“I am sorry that as parents you have to pay incentives. I want to put an end to them but I should do so at a time that is responsible. I cannot do the thing that is popular and abolish incentives only to reverse the gains we have achieved since I became Minister of Education,” said Senator Coltart.

Senator Coltart defended the incentives and said that as much as they erode the spending powers of parents and guardians they were a necessary evil.

He said: “I am determined to restore respect to the teaching fraternity. I don’t want our teachers to do like what happens on roadblocks where we are solicited for bribes. We (Ministry of Education) now have a good relationship with teachers, I have an open door policy and I discuss with them their grievances and other important matters that affect education.

“This year we hardly had any strikes or stay-aways; this is not rocket science but a policy of respecting teachers. I respect teachers and I treat them has human beings with needs like every citizen of Zimbabwe. When I took over, ZIMSEC (Zimbabwe School Examination Council) had developed a habit of delaying the marking and release of the results bug I ended all that. I did not pour in the money that teachers wanted, I just showed them respect.”

Senator Coltart also revealed that he had managed to turn around the education sector by working tirelessly to ensure that students did not share textbooks.

“Eighteen months ago we promised that primary schoolchildren would have a textbook each in all subjects and we delivered on that promise. It was not because we had money but because we set our minds on accomplishing that task. Recently I launched the textbook project for secondary schools. Next, every secondary school student will have textbooks for English, Mathematics, Geography, History, Science and the vernacular language that they do,” he said.

On Wednesday, the senator reiterated his sentiments to Parliament that Government would soon roll out six secondary school textbooks worth over $8 million under his Ministry’s Education Trust Fund.

Senator Coltart said the programme was aimed at ensuring each student has unfettered access to study material and avoid sharing of textbooks.

“The tender was awarded to College Press which will do 42 percent of the textbooks, Longman 34 percent and Zimbabwe Publishing House (ZPH) 24 percent of the textbooks. These will be distributed to a total of 2 345 secondary schools throughout the country and the textbooks are currently in the warehouse and the distribution process will start in a few days, starting with the most remote areas due to the rainy season which might make it difficult to access the places,” said Senator Coltart.

This project comes hard on the heels of the launch of the US$85 million education fund by the Government, the United Nations and other Western donors, which is aimed at improving education in the country’s secondary schools.

The donation will pay for seven million textbooks, and follows a similar project last year in which UNICEF and other agencies donated 13 million to the country’s primary schools.

The programme also will target 200 000 absentee children from the most impoverished and vulnerable communities. On the issue of minority languages, Senator Coltart said he was working on a project to make all minority languages part of the education curriculum.

He said: “Every mother tongue is important as the next thus I want all languages to be examination subjects at Grade 7 and secondary school. We have managed to turn Tonga into an examination subject at primary school and we want to introduce other languages as well. I want the Kalanga language, Venda, Suthu and all other languages to be taught at schools because without vernacular languages we risk losing out identity.”