The government is set to review the qualifications of school heads and teachers, with a doctorate degree being the most desirable qualification for a school head as it moves to ensure quality education is delivered in the country.
On the other hand, teachers have been encouraged to upgrade their qualifications in order to remain relevant to the demands of the ever-advancing world and benefit from the workforce development license that is set to be revitalised. Although no specific time frames have been set, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Hon Turayai Moyo said it is necessary to ensure that those providing education are sufficiently qualified and teachers are encouraged to progress academically. Minister Moyo said this while addressing heads of primary and secondary schools, district school inspectors and education officials at St Colombo’s Secondary School in Bulawayo on Thursday.
“I want to encourage you to constantly develop yourselves, I started with a diploma in education but I had to continue to reach the stage of self-realization. I see among you young faces who have been lucky to be promoted and they are school principals. There will come a time when we will issue a circular telling you to become a principal.” For secondary school, you have to have a doctorate, and to become a teacher, and to teach in our primary schools, you have to have a degree,” Minister Moyo said.
He said there was a time when first grade teachers were Zimbabwe Junior Certificate holders and were later removed, and Ordinary Level Certificate holders were allowed to teach early grades but were also later removed.
“There will come a time when degree holders will no longer be desirable, so why not seize this opportunity to take time to do your studies? The sky is the limit for each of you to pursue your highest goal,” he said.
He shared his experience as a workforce development leave recipient and how he advanced his education.
“During my career as a teacher, I went on study leave to obtain a university degree. We need to revive the Workforce Development Leave so that our teachers can also be beneficiaries of this very important program. For three years when I was studying for my Bachelor of Arts in my first year and Honors In my second year, I remember that I was entitled to a stipend for those three years, and of course, it was reduced to half the stipend. I was also a beneficiary of payments. When I did my Master of Arts, it was a full-time programme, and I was also entitled to On my salary. When I went to study for my PhD at Rhodes University in South Africa, I was also on a full-time program between 2015 and 2017, and was receiving full pay. “At that time, I was already teaching at the University of Zimbabwe as a lecturer,” Minister Moyo said. “For history.”
Turning to the transfer of school heads, he said the rules and standing orders highlight that when someone is promoted to be a school head and assumes duty, they cannot transfer before completing their probation period, but he said it is an issue he wants to support for those. who are promoted to allow them to move and take up duty elsewhere closer to them.
Regarding Continuous Assessment Learning Areas (CALAs), the Minister said that teachers were not adequately trained on how to manage CALAs, which led to challenges faced by the concept.
“People have reported on their expectations for CALA, but have teachers been trained on how to implement CALA tasks? We have had to review the entire curriculum. We may reduce the number of CALAs from 27 to two or one, but before we do that, we want you to You train school principals on how to do CALA, and then you train your teachers so that people appreciate CALA or we may decide to remove CALA and replace it with something else,” he said.
The Minister said that school heads have a responsibility to provide educational leadership in schools and create an environment in which teachers and learners thrive and achieve their full potential. He said that the government was concerned about the behavior of some school heads who were Ignoring the instructions received through the ministry’s circulars.
“As a government, we have said that it is the responsibility of every parent and guardian to pay school fees and taxes for their children, and we demand that they be paid on time. Delay in payment of school fees and taxes means that operations in our schools will come to a halt. These children from deprived families have safety nets at their disposal. (But “It is illegal to turn away learners for not paying fees and taxes. Schools must find ways to raise this money. We have heard here that the fee collection rate in St. Colombo is 89 percent, which is commendable.”
He said that non-collection of school fees also falls on the school administration.
“If you are the principal of a school, whether it is in an urban area, a densely populated area or a rural area, and if parents are not paying school fees, there is an issue that stems from the school principal or the chair of the school development committee. Make sure you hold regular meetings with the parents Tell them the importance of paying school fees and show them the projects you want to do, they will be an integral part of what you want to do. As a government, we are not saying they should not pay, but we are saying they should pay on time. I visited Sheria Secondary School The school fee collection rate was 75 percent when the schools opened. They were showcasing the projects they were doing, there was a lab under construction and everyone wanted to be associated with the good work happening at the school.
The minister said that school principals who continue to defy government orders on school fees will be dealt with.
“I am here to remind those defiant authorities that we will enforce the law, and we cannot tolerate a situation where people continue to defy our instructions. We are compiling a list of defiant school heads. We have tools we can use to punish those schools. We can even transfer head teachers who resist the instructions. “I’m not threatening you but it’s a fact. We can’t continue to tolerate school administrators who do whatever they want.” Sunday News
