Primary and Secondary Education Minister, Dr Evelyn Ndlovu, has implored Parliament to consider reversing its decision on the centralisation of teacher recruitment in the country which she said was affecting their operations.
Ndlovu was responding to a question by Matabeleland South proportional representation MP, Sipho Mokone, in Parliament Wednesday, on when the recruitment process would be effected.
“The Hon. Minister indicated that there is a shortage of teachers in various schools around the country,” said Mokone.
“I would like to find out where the problem is exactly because we have a lot of graduate teachers who are not employed. These are qualified teachers who are looking for jobs but cannot secure vacancies in schools despite the shortages that the Minister alluded to. In that regard, Hon. Minister, when should we expect the decentralisation of employment of teachers?”
Stakeholders especially in Matabeleland have blamed the poor pass rate on the centralisation of teacher recruitment resulting in non-Ndebele speakers deployed in the region.
“This Parliament reversed decentralisation of the recruitment of teachers,” responded Ndlovu.
“This was done in a purported quest to curb corruption and this is really affecting the Ministry. I, therefore, implore this august House to consider intervening in this issue so that the recruitment of teachers is decentralised. This morning my ministry was discussing with the Minister of Labour regarding the deployment of teachers to schools in their respective areas of origin.”
She further said: “There are a lot of trained teachers all over the country. For instance, if someone comes from Gokwe, then they should be deployed in schools in their local areas. The Ministry is therefore seized with the issue of coming up with a policy to address this anomaly. I, therefore, request that the Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education should consider reversing the decision on the centralisation of recruitment of teachers.”
