Educational Challenges currently Facing Zimbabwe, PTUZ’s Conception Schools opened on the 9th of September 2014 amid deepening political and liquidity crises that have also ushered in an educational crisis in Zimbabwe. Such an educational crisis in Zimbabwe in punctuated by lack of political will to invest in public education; obsolete, archaic and rusty curricula; dysfunctional Curriculum Development Unit (CDU); absence of computerised database; defective and misleading literacy rate; lack of Information, Communication and Technology; mismanagement of schools and appointments that lack merit; politics infested schools; lack of standardisation and inter-operability of education Ministries; absence of national educational language policy; disrespect of teachers and unfair labour practice; vindictive manpower development policies and opaque teacher capacity building programmes; and insulated bureaucracy, among many others. Unless these are urgently resolved Zimbabwean system of education is heading for disaster, increased poverty, high drop-out rate and unprecedented failure rate. Zimbabwean government needs to mellow down to a more constructive approach by investing in quality public education and treating teachers with dignity let alone paying them well. The quadripartite panorama in which government, teachers, parents and learners are alkaline to each other should be promoted rather than the acidic relationship currently ensuring throughout the country. There is no investment more important than investing in human resource and in this case, the young generation. 1. Absence of political Will to Invest in Public Education: The 2000 Dakar framework and UNESCO developmental budget spell out that governments must invest in Quality Public Education. Where Education is a priority, the educational budget must be above 22% of the total national budget. Sadly, over the last 14 years Zimbabwe has prioritised political power at the expense of the education system. Even the Inclusive government was no exception, though of course there could be differences with the current situation in terms of degree rather than in kind. At a time when the global world under the banner of Education International (EI) is campaigning for quality public education, Zimbabwe is regressing and witnessing cold and calculated educational vandalism. Unfortunately, the vandals are in government and invest in private education rather than quality public education. 2. Curricula Review: The last serious curricula review was in 1983 though of course there were other half-hearted measures in the 1990s. As such most of the aspects in various subjects have lost touch with the current trends in education. While the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has proclaimed that it is reviewing the curricula, it is unfortunate that there are no practical indicators of such review. Curricula review must be broad based rather than monolithic and involve all important stake holders such as teachers, learners, industry, religious denomination (traditionalists included) etc. Sadly, the current trend is pronounced in news papers and at party meetings instead of taking a more constructive, professional and inclusive approach permeable to reason and facts. 3. Absence of a functional Curriculum Development Unit (CDU): The CDU that used to closely monitor curricular has died a natural death. It is also because of this that most of the credible syllabi in schools were crafted in the 1990s. Those that were crafted after the demise of CDU (such as the patriotic History syllabi) are partisan and tailor made to entrench the partisan regimes. Not surprisingly they are narrow-minded and fail to nurture analytic products who are innovative and celebrate our unity in diversity. 4. Absence of a computerized Database on teachers: In the world of technology the Ministry still operating in the mode of paperwork and files for teachers. It therefore does not have computerized data on teachers which greatly affects effective planning in terms of the best use of human resources in the profession. Deployment is also affected as it does not resonate with best utilization of teachers and needs of the various districts, let alone schools. A computerized database would enable the Ministry to utilize the human resource effectively and swiftly fill vacancies created with more appropriate replacement than is currently the case. 5. Dysfunctional Literacy rate: While Zimbabwe always celebrates that it has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa (92%) it is unfortunate that such literacy has not transformed into development. Above all, the statistics used to decipher such literacy rate are from the pre-crisis era and defective. What Zimbabwe needs most is functional literacy where students do not learn in order to pass examinations but are educated for life. As such our education system needs a paradigm shift from merely passing an examination to equipping the students with survival skills. Our education has also remained too academic at the expense of vocational and technical training as enunciated by the 1999 Nziramasanga Commission. The government is merely paying leap service to the recommendations of the Nziramasanga Commission 6. ICT, appropriate management of schools and appointment to leadership on merit: Our education needs to embrace Information, Communication and Technology in order to keep pace with the fast moving world of the 21st century. As such there is need for a serious integration of ICT in teacher training and in-service training as well as integration of human resource management; leadership; conflict resolution, management and prevention; and corporate governance in schools. Sadly, appointments and promotions to school management and various Ministrial levels are not based on merit but either amenability to partisan politics or age. 7. Schools as politics free zones: In most cases schools are used for political meetings. Party officials now control schools including traditional leaders such as chiefs who are now engaged to whip parents to pay fees. The same traditional leaders now think they can fire teachers from schools for merely suspecting that such teachers do not belong to ruling party. Members of society have on many times walked into schools and assaulted teachers in front of their students. Many teachers have been forced to attend political rallies at their schools while some have been victimised after the rallies for failure to attend political rallies. In order to ensure that effective learning and teaching ensues at schools it is important that schools must be politics free-zones. 8. Merging Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education: There is no rationale for creating three ministries of education other than rewarding cronies. That division has created functional challenges, discontinuities or gaps in the education system from pre-school to primary education, secondary education and tertiary education. For example the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education trains teachers which it does not employ whereas the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education employs teachers which it does not train. More often than not the needs of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education are not effectively addressed because the Ministry that trains teachers is not well acquainted with the challenges in the Ministry. A case in point is the training of PE teachers in large numbers by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education in the period 2000-2005, who after completion of their training could not be accommodated for the subject they had trained in because there were no corresponding vacancies in schools. The majority of them are still teaching subjects they never trained for. The country can therefore invest resources appropriately by ensuring that we have one Ministry of Education with two or more departments of primary and secondary, and tertiary education closely integrated. Such integration would greatly promote interoperability of the education system from primary to tertiary education. Sadly we have even increased the Ministries to three islands with the creation of psychomotor ministry. 9. Absence of National Language Policy: While it is commendable that the new constitution has recognised a number of indigenous languages, it is unfortunate that the Ministry of Education has no functional language policy. The absence of an educational language policy has unfortunately generated much political debate instead of academic and professional debate. Some people in Matabeleland have blamed Shona teachers for the failure rate in Ndebele, while recently Binga Rural District has banned the teaching of Ndebele in Binga and is lobbying for the teaching of Tonga. Some prospective teachers have failed to enrol for training at teacher training colleges on the premise that they did not have an indigenous subject (such as Ndebele or Shona) even though they were deaf and dumb and had passed sign language at O level. Outside Matabeleland, the Karanga, Manyika, Korekore and Ndau have strongly objected to the so called standard Shona which is nothing else other than zezurufication of non-Zezuru and legitimation of status ruling core. The general assumption that people in Masvingo are Shona and must learn Shona as an indigenous language is a distortion of history and so is the general assumption that people in Matabeleland are Ndebele who should have Ndebele as their indigenous language. Above all, both Ndebele and Shona have recorded worst pass rate at Grade 7 and O level with Shona even fairing worse than Ndebele. All this is a result of the absence of a language policy. Countries that have language policies allow students at primary school in particular to choose one local language subject from at least three or more dominant local languages. For example a student in an area where Ndebele, Venda, Nambya, Sotho, Kalanga are dominant local languages will be allowed to choose one of these languages. An educational language policy will also have a ripple effect in teacher training and deployment. Put simply the high failure rate in Shona and Ndebele is largely a result of the absence of an educational language policy where a number of Karanga, Shangani, Lemba, Korekore, Manyika, Ndau, Nambya, Tonga, deaf and dumb, Sotho, Tswana, Vhenda, Xhosa, Chewa, Chibarwe, Ndebele are either reduced to learning Zezuru (Shona) or Ndebele. A clear cut language policy which gives room for a choice from limited dominant languages in respective districts or areas could see a marked change in respective pass rates. 10. Respect of Teachers and Fair Labour practice: Teachers need to be treated with dignity let alone be respected as professionals. There is need for a Professional Council of Teachers and a Teaching Service Commission. The Profession must be self regulating like other professions like law. Sadly in Zimbabwe teaching is not a profession much as the government wants teachers to behave professionally. Most of the regulations governing teachers were crafted by the employer with no input from teachers. Neither does the government respect relevant ILO Conventions such as Convention 87, 98 and 151. The first two conventions specifically concern freedoms of association, organization, assembly and strike as well as binding collective bargaining so as to enhance industrial harmony and productivity. Such rights are seriously eroded in Zimbabwe even under the new constitution (section 203(4)). Deharmonization of labour laws and collective begging are the order of the day with the government flouting labour laws with impunity. Convention 151 deals with civil servants and respect of their civil, labour and political rights. Sadly our government has not ratified this and continue to flout rights of civil servants. Much as government had promised to pay PDL compliant salaries to teachers before elections in 2013, it later reneged on this. Much as the government promised to review teachers’ salaries in June 2014, thereafter it reneged on this promise. The government has also reneged on non-monetary incentives promised to teachers and other civil servants, such as land for houses and farming; non-payment of duty on cars imported by teachers; shares in mines etc. Morale has reached low ebb more so considering the banning of monetary incentives with no substitution by non-monetary incentives; the ban of holiday lessons and the routine perception and ridicule of teachers as mercenaries by the Minister, Dokora. 11. Manpower Development on Half Salary or no pay: Much as other professions go on study leave on full pay such as soldiers, police, CIO and even nurses, teachers are treated harshly as if their expenses also go on leave once they are on leave. The recent announcement that government got money for Teachers’ Capacity Building Programme lacks clarity, transparency and equity as impeccable sources point to secretive deals and choosing of beneficiaries of manpower development in an opaque manner. 12. Insulated Bureaucracy: The Ministry wrongly assumes that intelligence reside at head office and a number of issues are planned and decisions are taken at head office and pushed down to provinces, districts and schools with virtually no input from teachers. Information even on number of teachers is jealously guarded and there is also a lot of red tape than hinders the free acquisition of information or taking of appropriate decision that resonate with a challenge at a particular place. In short there is no upward and down ward flow of communication, let alone cross pollination of ideas in the Ministry but rather acidic self pollination which hinders the growth of the education system. Prepared by Dr Takavafira M. Zhou PTUZ President
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 12:46:10 +0000
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