Sunday NewsÂ
By Vusumuzi Dube
3 March 2013
Government has recruited over 22 000 unqualified temporary teachers in a bid to solve the critical shortage of teachers in the country, a situation that is impacting negatively on the overall performance within the education sector.
This comes in the backdrop of a very low pass rate recorded in the last years Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) Ordinary and Advanced Level pass rate.
In an interview with Sunday News on Friday, Education, Sports, and Culture Minister, Senator David Coltart, said the number of unqualified teachers in the system was a cause for concern especially considering that teacher training institutions were failing to meet the demand for teachers in the country.
He said well teacher training institutions were releasing an average of 6000 teachers the problem was that over 75 percent of these did not make into the industry as they immediately left the country in pursuit of greener pastures. “The number of unqualified temporary teachers in the country is very worrying, right now we have over 22 000 unqualified teachers within the system, the most affected areas being in the rural areas where most of the qualified teachers shun teaching in these areas but opt for urban centers.â€
“I must admit that we are battling to get qualified personnel for us to at least offer quality services in our schools but this is frustrating by the fact that while 6000 teachers graduate at our teacher training schools over 75 pecent of these do not even make it to the schools,†said Minister Coltart.
The Minister said one of the few ways to address this problem was to train the unqualified temporary teachers themselves to ensure that they at least know the basics of educations and further ensure that students were not let down by the unqualified personnel.
He said the most affected areas were in Maths and Science subjects.