There is a need for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the education policy in Zimbabwe, which will inform the training and deployment of teachers, political analyst Professor Jonathan Moyo has said.
He expressed these sentiments during This Morning on Asakhe, where he discussed the ramifications of the language of instruction at the Early Childhood Development (ECD) level, following the controversy surrounding the dismissal of Deputy Minister of Higher Education Simelisizwe Sibanda from his position.
Sibanda, a Member of Parliament for Bubi Constituency, took it upon himself to remove ECD teachers from his constituency who cannot speak the local language.
During the discussion, Prof. Moyo highlighted that primary school children, and ECD children in particular, must be taught all subjects in their mother tongue to ensure they grasp, understand, and can apply what they are being taught.
“This is fundamental. If this is not being done, then the constitutional provisions that are referred to are violated. It is therefore important for the state and government to deploy teachers by this understanding,” he said.
Prof. Moyo stressed the need for the state and government to develop language capacities and competencies in all the languages that are constitutionally recognized as official languages to ensure that no ECD or even primary school child is introduced to the experience of education in his or her mother language or tongue.
“It is a fact that the country has teacher deployment and redeployment whose objective is to ensure that primary school children are taught in their home language by deploying teachers who are qualified and competent in the language of the community where they are deployed,” he said.
He further noted that Zimbabwe has recognized this approach since 1980.
“This has been recognized and understood in education in Zimbabwe generally from the start in 1980, but in particular from a more comprehensive and technical point of view, professionally speaking. From 1998, this has been policy, but since the 1999 Nziramasanga Commission, this has been a holy grail; it is policy.”
Prof. Moyo suggested that Sibanda’s case provides an opportunity to revisit the teacher deployment policy to address challenges.
“But this policy has challenges that need to be addressed. Perhaps this case of Honourable Sibanda is an opportunity to revisit that policy to address those challenges because it does appear there is something there. But unfortunately, the case has not given us enough evidence to talk about it from a policy point of view and an evidence-based policy point of view.
But it is important, therefore, to have evidence-based monitoring and evaluation of this policy, of the implementation of this policy, whose findings should then be used to inform the training of primary school teachers and, more importantly, their deployment at specific schools in specific communities, as well as where necessary, their redeployment,” he said.
He added that while the policy exists, the monitoring of its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. “If you look at the policy, you will find that in fact it is decentralised.”
