Stakeholders have called on the government to prioritise other local languages in its teacher training curriculum, following the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Prof Amon Murwira’s announcement that the government will implement a policy to ensure that all teachers who graduate from teachers’ colleges are multilingual.
Prof Murwira was responding to a concern raised by Gwanda South MP Dr Omphile Marupi on the deployment of teachers to areas where they cannot speak the local language.
In response, he said teachers are mandated to learn at least three local languages other than their own, to address language barriers and improve the quality of education.
Speaking on This Morning on Asakhe, participant Shepherd Ndlovu said there is a need for devolution of power so that teachers from particular areas teach in their areas. “The best way to do this is to have the devolution of power, meaning people of that area should teach in that area,” said Ndlovu.
Another participant, Zenzele Ndebele, said there is a need to look beyond the three dominant languages in the country. “I think I am impressed with what (Omphile) Marupi said in parliament but I think people need to realise that Zimbabwe has 16 official languages. Most of the times when people talk about languages its usually complaints that Shona teachers are deployed in Matabeleland and we don’t realise that non-Kalanga, non-Tonga speakers are also deployed in these areas, so I guess this policy means, if you are teaching in Plumtree you should be speaking in Kalanga, being a Ndebele is not enough because you can’t speak Kalanga,” said Ndebele.
Ndebele also added that there are other endangered languages in Zimbabwe, such as San and Isilozwi, which are not taught in schools.
Another participant, Douglas Mandaza, said the government should start implementing the policy to the younger teachers. “It sounds good on paper to say student teachers should speak three languages but we all know that we are fooling ourselves. What the government can do is to try to teach the younger ones who are currently at school, maybe if you are in Matabeleland to be able to pick up an extra language like Shona, Tonga, Venda, Kalanga,” said Mandaza.
Another speaker pointed out that the problem of language barriers in schools has been around for over 100 years. He said that the government needs to be more direct in its approach to solving the problem, by ensuring that teachers in all areas are able to speak the local language.
