The Chronicle
13 February 2012
The Government requires $87 million to introduce a retraining programme for all teachers over the next four years under the Education Transition Fund, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Senator David Coltart has said.
Towards the end of last year, the Government announced plans to unveil a retraining programme for all teachers in the country to enhance their skills to keep up with emerging trends in the global education sector.
Senator David Coltart said yesterday that the Government, through his ministry, was in the process of mobilising resources for the retraining of teachers, which is expected to begin in the second term.
“The retraining programme for teachers has not started yet. We are in the process of mobilising resources for the programme that will run over the next four years under the Education Transition Fund.
“We have set ourselves a budget of $87 million for the programme which at the moment is at its formative stage. We are busy lobbying donor countries to assist with funding,” he said.
Sen Coltart said the British and Finish governments, among others, had indicated their commitment towards releasing resources for the proposed programme.
However, he could not be drawn into revealing how much had been raised to kick-start the programme.
It is also envisaged that the programme would improve professionalism among teachers.
Sen Coltart said the programme was detailed and could begin in the second term and run over the next four years.
“It is a quite detailed programme which is not easy to carry. We could be starting it in the second term,” he said.
“Our main concern at the moment is that the country so far has many unqualified teachers and we intend to ensure all the teachers including those with diplomas and degrees upgrade their skills.”
Although Sen Coltart could not ascertain the number of unqualified teachers in the country, he said compared to urban areas, a large proportion of untrained teachers was in rural areas such as Binga and Gokwe.
Recently, the Government lifted a ban it had imposed last year on recruitment of temporary teachers.
As part of addressing the shortage of qualified teachers, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture recently developed a five-year strategy that seeks to attract qualified teachers into the country through improving remuneration and working conditions.
In recent years, Zimbabwe has experienced an exodus of trained and experienced teachers to neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Botswana.