STAFF WRITER
PRESSURE group Ibhetshu LikaZulu has said it was irked by the continued poor Grade 7 pass rate in Matabeleland schools.
The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (Zimsec) Grade 7 results show that nine of the top 10 ranked schools are in Harare while Bulawayo does not have a school in the top 40.
The 10 worst schools (0% pass rate) are in Matabeleland region, 88 schools countrywide recorded a 0% pass rate.
While this is nothing new in the region that has always complained of marginalisation, it is the continued trend that has attracted fury from different sectors in the region.
“The continued poor results mainly from Matabeleland region now needs urgent serious corrective attention. This sad development has been going on for years, it can be attributed to lack of restorative justice after Gukurahundi genocide, the region lost a lot of infrastructure and human resources that would have made the region at par if not better than the rest of the country,” Ibhetshu secretary general Mbuso Fuzwayo said in a statement.
He added: “We have warned repeatedly that the lack of initiatives that seriously address this sad loss will have adverse effects on the development of this country and may result in conflict in future.”
Last year only ten schools from the Matabeleland region made it into the country’s top 100 schools of Grade Seven results, while 32 others from the region got a zero percent pass rate. Matabeleland North had 15 schools with zero percent pass rate while in Matabeleland South 10 recorded zero percent pass rate, seven schools with zero pass rate came from Bulawayo.
Observers feel that government also worsened the situation as it failed to deal with a crippling teachers strike which saw them failing to return to classes due to a tiff over salaries. This was after the nation had spent a better part of the year under Covid-19 lockdown.
“Government must seriously look at the concerns that are raised by teachers, continuously engage them so that the students get good service from the motivated teachers, for a positive result. The teachers have raised grievances that have not been taken into consideration by the government.”
Fuzwayo said there was need for government to seriously look into the education system of the marginalised areas and take corrective measures.
