Mgcini Dlamini
MATABELELAND North is headed for education disaster and is projected to set a new record of poor results.
The province, which is largely rural has in the past produced poor, Grade 7, ‘O’ and ‘A’ level results.
This is set to worsen this year due to the forced six months closure of schools to combat the spread of Covid-19.
To make matters worse, when schools reopened teachers refused to go back to work, demanding salaries in forex.
The government announced that exams will commence in December and spill over to January next year.
Students who spoke to this publication said they are not going to schools since they were no teachers.
“Why should l go to school when they are no teachers. I registered so l will write my exams in December,” said Nokuthula Mpofu, a form four student at Simbane High school in Gomoza, Lupane.
“I am reading from home and l will try my best. I will do my best but we didn’t finish syllabuses in most subjects,” she added.
Chris Munkuli, a form 6 student from Mabale in Hwange district said:”It is tricky because some of us don’t have textbooks at homes. So, we will go and write what we learnt last year because this year we didn’t learn anything”.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general, Raymond Majongwe, said rural schools are unattractive.
“Rural schools are not attractive. We talk of poor infrastructure and
quality teachers avoid these places,” said Majongwe.
“There is need to incentivize teaching in rural remote places,”he added.
