BULAWAYO - With the third school term about to commence, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture is facing a critical shortage of staff.For the past year the ministry has been in a serious drive to resuscitate the education sector that had been hit by the economic and political meltdown of the past decade.
The Provincial Education Director (PED) for Matabeleland North Province Boithatelo Mnguni, said it was important to capacitate rural schools so as to lure more teachers. She said teachers shunned rural schools because of poor facilities where some have to walk for more than 20 km to the nearest main roads.
“Most of our rural schools are supported by temporary teachers in the form of Ordinary and Advanced level graduates. The biggest challenge now is that they are also finding it hard to continue in the education sector especially when there are no attractive packages,” Mnguni said.
The PED said most rural schools were not properly staffed and the province now had a shortage of 1400 teachers.
The Minister of Sport, Education, Arts and Culture David Coltart said that the teacher shortage was not confined to Matebeleland North.
Conditions of rural teachers countrywide are terrible and it is hard to retain qualified teachers. I have proposed that we provide some incentives for rural teachers but that is subject to money being found to pay them. We also need to improve their general living conditions which are often squalid, said Coltart.
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