BULAWAYO-BASED pressure group Ibhetshu Likazulu has commended the Zanu PF Matabeleland leadership for tackling the contentious deployment of non-Ndebele speaking teachers in the region, but accused the Primary and Secondary Education ministry of trivialising the issue. Chief Reporter
Ibhetshu Likazulu secretary-general Mbuso Fuzwayo said Zanu PF national chairperson Simon Khaya Moyo and Zanu PF secretary for education Sikhanyiso Ndlovu showed bravery by openly pledging to probe the matter.
“We are not worried about who employs the teachers, but what is crucial is the net effect after deployment,’ he said.
“(Lazarus) Dokora (Primary and Secondary Education minister) and his ministry are attempting to shift the blame to the Civil Servants Commission (CSC). That is a policy issue and the region cannot be held to ransom by policies that they never participated in crafting. That policy should be revised to suit everyone.”
However, Fuzwayo praised Khaya Moyo and Ndlovu.
“We really applauded Khaya Moyo and Ndlovu, for once in a long period, they are standing up for the region on this issue,” he said.
“Being brave and in doing so, they risk being called tribalists just like anyone else who raises issues of marginalisation of the region.”
Parents and educationists in Matabeleland have long blamed the low pass-rate in the region on the deployment of non-Ndebele-speaking teachers in both primary and secondary schools.
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Pressure groups such as the Mthwakazi Youth Joint Leaders’ Resolution have even protested the “unfair” deployments.
The pressure group demonstrated at Makuzeze Primary School in Mangwe, Matabeleland South, demanding the transfer of the head from Mashonaland after the institution only recorded a single pass in the 2012 Grade 7 examinations.
At the weekend, the Primary and Secondary Education ministry said the deployment of teachers was the responsibility of the CSC.
“The employment of teachers is governed by the CSC regulations and the deployment of teachers is done in accordance with the same regulations,” ZBC quoted the ministry saying.
