THE Government is set to review school heads and teachers’ qualifications with a PhD being the most desirable qualification for a school head as it moves to ensure delivery of quality education in the country.
Teachers, on the other hand, have been encouraged to
upgrade their qualifications so that they remain relevant to the demands of the
ever advancing world and benefit from the manpower development leave that is
set to be resuscitated. Although no specific timeframes have been set, Minister
of Primary and Secondary Education Hon Torerayi Moyo said it was essential to
ensure that those who deliver education were qualified enough and encouraged
teachers to advance academically. Minister Moyo said this while addressing
heads of primary and secondary schools, district schools inspectors and
education officials at St Columbu’s High School in Bulawayo on Thursday.
“I want to encourage you to continuously upgrade
yourselves, I started with a Diploma in Education but I had to continue aiming
for self-actualisation stage. I see youthful faces among you who were lucky to
be promoted and are headmasters. There will come a time when we will come up
with a circular to say for you to become a headmaster of a high school you must
have a PhD, and for you to become a teacher, teaching in our primary schools
you must have a degree,” said Minister Moyo.
He said there was a time when teachers of Grade ones were
holders of the Zimbabwe Junior Certificate and were later removed, and Ordinary
Level certificate holders were allowed to teach early grades but they were also
later removed.
“There will come a time when diploma holders will no longer
be wanted, so why don’t you take this opportunity to take time to do your
studies? The sky is the limit for each one of you to continue to aim higher,”
he said.
He shared his experience as a beneficiary of manpower
development leave and how he advanced his education.
“During the course of my profession as a teacher, I went on
study leave to do an under-graduate degree. We need to resuscitate the manpower
development leave so that our teachers will also be beneficiaries of that very
important programme. For three years when I was studying for a Bachelor of Arts
General in my first year and my Honours in my second year, I remember I was
entitled to a salary for those three years, of course, it was reduced to half
pay. I was also a beneficiary of pay-outs. When I did my Master of Arts, it was
a full-time programme, I was also entitled to my salary. When I went to study
for my PhD at Rhodes University in South Africa I was also on a full-time
programme between 2015 and 2017, I was on full pay. At that time, I was already
teaching at the University of Zimbabwe as a History lecturer,” said Minister
Moyo.
Turning to the transfer of school heads, he said standing
rules and orders highlight that when one was promoted to be a headmaster and
assumes duty, they cannot transfer before they complete probation, but said it
was an issue that he would want to support for those who were promoted to be
allowed to transfer and assume duty elsewhere nearest to them.
On Continuous Assessment Learning Areas (CALAs), the
minister said teachers were not adequately trained on how to administer the
CALAs leading to challenges that the concept was met with.
“People made submissions on their expectations on CALA, but
were the teachers trained on how they can carry out CALA assignments? We had to
review the curriculum in its entirety. We may reduce the number of CALAs
probably from 27 to two or one, but before we do that we want you the school
heads to be trained on how CALA is conducted, 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 school heads have the responsibility to
provide instructional leadership in schools and create an environment where
teachers and learners thrive and achieve their full potential. He said the
Government was concerned with the behaviour of some school heads who were ignoring instructions given through circulars
by the ministry.
“As Government, we have said it is the responsibility of
every parent and guardian to pay school fees and levies for their children and
we are demanding that these be paid on time. A delay in the payment of school
fees and levies means that operations at our schools will come to a halt, a
standstill. Those children from underprivileged families have safety nets at
their disposal. (But) it is illegal to turn away learners for non-payment of
fees and levies. Schools should find ways of collecting that money. We have
heard here that the fees collection rate at St Columbu’s is 89 percent, this is
commendable,” he said.
He said failure to collect school fees also rests on the
school’s administration.
“If you are a headmaster of a school, whether it is in an
urban area, high-density area, or rural area, if parents are not paying school
fees then there is a problem, emanating from a headmaster or School Development
Committee chairman. Ensure that you hold regular meetings with parents, tell
them the importance of paying school fees and show them projects that you want
to do, they will be part and parcel of what you want to do. As the Government,
we are not saying they must not pay, but we are saying they must pay on time. I
visited Chireya High School where the collection rate of school fees was 75
percent when schools opened. They were showcasing projects that they were
doing, a laboratory is under construction and everyone wants to be associated
with good work happening at a school,” he said.
The minister said headmasters who continue to defy
Government orders on school fees will be dealt with.
“I am here to remind those defiant authorities that we are
going to apply the law, we cannot tolerate a situation where people continue to
defy our instructions. We are compiling a list of defiant school heads. We have
instruments that we can use to punish those schools. We can even transfer those
headmasters who are resisting instructions. I am not threatening you but that
is a fact. We cannot continue to tolerate school heads who do what they want,”
he said. Sunday News
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