Teachers in some rural schools in Gwanda district are absconding from work to go and conduct mining activities, councillors have said.
The councillors also bemoaned the continued hiring of teachers not conversant in local languages.
Debating the social services report during a Gwanda Rural District Council (GRDC) full council meeting last week, the councillors called on the government to intervene.
“We have a challenge in schools, in some primary schools we have teachers who don’t know the local languages, these teachers are even expected to teach IsiNdebele but they don’t know it and when it comes to marking, the learners are told to exchange books and mark for each other,” said Ward 2 Councillor Zwelibanzi Mpofu.
“In my ward, there is a teacher who is expected to teach an ECD class but she doesn’t even know how to speak the local language, our children did not learn during the Covid-19 era, and right now they are being given teachers who don’t know the local languages.”
Ward 11 councillor, Coster Ndlovu appealed to the District Schools Inspectors to do rounds in schools and check if teachers are really doing their job.
“You should also inspect the learners’ books. At Ntalale Secondary School, there are teachers who use only one exercise book throughout the year; this has been ongoing for a while.”
Councilor Ndlovu added, “Some of the teachers are miners, they spend their time doing their business, and things are really bad in our schools,” he said
In addition, Ward 13 Councilor Miclas Ndlovu said it is shocking that most of the teachers in the district are coming from Harare.
“I have moved around all the schools in my ward, what is shocking is that all the teachers are coming from Harare. What is the role of devolution? Does it not even speak to teachers because there are trained teachers in our community who are not doing anything yet in schools there are no teachers,” said Clr Ndlovu.
Chief Nhlamba said teachers who are contracted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to conduct election-related work often demand payment from learners to teach them during the holidays.
“Those teachers are now demanding that learners pay R100 for them to teach them during the school holidays,” said the chief.
In response to some of the issues raised, the District Schools Inspector (DSI) Sydney Sibanda admitted that there is a shortage of teachers in the district but the government has been trying to plug the gap.
“There is a debate about teachers who get employed and don’t know the local languages, that is something that is not going to happen again, especially in primary schools, the program that is there now, when teachers are employed they will look at where the teacher did his or her primary and secondary education, their Identification numbers, this is aimed at stopping any chancers looking for employment,” said Sibanda.
