The Sunday News
Sukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
FORTY-FIVE percent of Mathematics teachers in Matabeleland South schools are untrained while 50 percent of science teachers are also not qualified, a development which has negatively affected performance of pupils in these two subjects at both primary and secondary level.
Speaking during a district education workshop for Bulilima in Plumtree on Wednesday, Matabeleland South provincial education director Ms Tumisang Thabela said the ministry had rolled out efforts to ensure all children learnt in their local languages.
“We have seen it important for children to be taught in their local languages at both primary and secondary level. The major challenge that we have been facing is of acquiring teaching material.
“We have eight minor languages which have been officially recognised but we have managed to acquire text books for only three of these namely Kalanga, Venda and Shangani. The majority of schools are still not teaching in local languages as a result,” Ms Thabela said.
“These textbooks that we have for these three languages so far are hardly enough for teaching purposes as we do not have supplementary books for reading purposes which are highly crucial in the learning process. The drive towards attaining a good pass rate within the province is difficult at the moment as we have realised that one of the ways of improving it is through teaching in local languages. We also do not have any local language teaching material for the ECD level.”
She urged headmasters and teachers to support the initiative by Government of teaching in local languages.
“We are also facing a problem of teachers and headmasters in schools who are resisting this initiative. Textbooks have reached some schools but teachers do not want to teach in local languages.
“Some headmasters have shunned this initiative but they are responsible for implementing it. They should realise that we are doing this for the benefit of the children. A headmaster should not stop children from learning in Kalanga just because he is Venda,” she said.
Ms Thabela said an inspection of various schools in the province had shown that a number of teachers at both primary and secondary level were not teaching according to the syllabus.
“It has come to our attention that a number of teachers are following textbooks and not the syllabus. It appears that some teachers cannot interpret the syllabus as they are not trained and as a result they follow textbooks.
“This was discovered by our inspectors within various districts and an example is Bulilima District. This is a big problem as children end up diverting from the syllabus and miss out on important topics,” she said.
“We have realised that there is a need to conduct training workshops on syllabus interpretation but funds are constraining us. Some teachers even use textbooks which are not in the syllabus which is a negative development within the education sector.”
Almost half of the teachers in Matabeleland South Province did not undergo teacher training, a situation that has been blamed for the low pass rates in the province. Ms Thabela recently said 40 percent of the teachers in secondary schools were not qualified while the province only has 66 trained Early Childhood Level teachers out of the required 1 400.
The workshop was attended by headmasters, teachers, councillors and members of various Government departments.
