The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
TREASURY has released at least $100 000 for the training of the first batch of 500 teachers in Early Childhood Development. The move comes as Government intensifies efforts to capacitate teaching staff in line with the new curriculum which entered its second phase with the opening of schools last week.Government mooted the training programme upon realisation there was a severe shortage of qualified teachers at ECD level which was introduction a few years ago.
The shortage has also seen the recruitment of about 10 000 teachers in an effort to improve the teacher pupil ratio. At least 450 qualified teachers in Mashonaland Central, Masvingo and Midlands have been identified to undergo intensive ECD training in various colleges in three provinces.
Primary and Secondary Education secretary, Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango told The Sunday Mail last week that treasury had already released the funds for the training.
She said the month long training was expected to start tomorrow
“These teachers are already qualified and were specialising in teaching primary education. We are now taking them to specialise in ECD,” said Dr Utete-Masango.
“The training will be intensive and will last a month. Treasury has already released the money for the training and I think it is about $150 per person. They are going to start on Monday (tomorrow).”
Dr Utete-Masango said the training was part of the realignment and redeployment of teachers who were not properly placed.
Dr Utete-Masango said there was an audit last week to determine how teachers were deployed and was yet to get the findings on “who is wrongly placed and who does not have the teaching qualification.”
She said on completion of the process, those who are wrongly placed will be redeployed as soon as possible while those with qualifications from other fields will have to enrol for training.
“It’s not a witch hunt but what we want is to ensure that our teachers are at the right place. It also helps us to improve the quality of our education,” she said.
Zimbabwe has 8 600 schools manned by about 200 000 teachers of which 80 percent of them are qualified while the remainder constitutes A’ Level and university graduates from non-teaching fields.
