ZIMBABWE has 9 000 unqualified teachers, a figure Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora said must be rolled back with the training of more educators.
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Dokora said the Higher and Tertiary Education ministry would be equipped to train more teachers so that learners would be taught by people who have the skills of imparting knowledge.
“Zimbabwe has got 135 000 teachers,” he told senators last week.
“We have about 9 000 or below who are not very well qualified to get whatever it is we want according to ideal situation.
“These 9 000 are supported by the fully qualified teachers because there are some who have high qualifications, like they might have a masters in physics and chemistry, but they do not have the teaching qualifications.”
Dokora, according to the parliamentary Hansard, was responding to a question from Binga Senator, Chief Siansali, on whether it was government policy for university graduates to have teaching qualifications.
Siansali insinuated that it did not make sense for university graduates with non-teaching qualifications to retrain to teach a Grade 2 pupil, for example.
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Dokora said the position of the ministry was that there should be 100% qualified teachers, though admitting that this was hard to attain.
“Our wish is to have 100% qualified teachers,” he said.
“These should the teachers who will be imparting education to our learners.
“But, this is an ideal situation and difficult to attain. We are also hoping that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education will be looking at equipping itself in such a way that it trains adequate teachers in order to have a good pupil to teacher ratio which will impart the necessary pedagogy to the learners.”
The education sector has experienced an exodus of trained teachers to greener pastures owing to the economic hardships that have gripped the country since 2000.
The government has started reinstating teachers who quit, but there are reports of bottlenecks frustrating the returning educators.
