Silobela up in arms against non-Ndebele speaking teachers

By Sydney Mubaiwa | Masvingo Mirror |

People in Silobela are up in arms against a shortage of Ndebele-speaking teachers, which has seen Shona-speaking teachers flooding the area.

This was said during a briefing with Midlands Minister of State, Larry Mavima, who was in Silobela recently to commission Gwesele – Bharimasvesve Primary School in Zhombe.

A senior Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education official, however, said the problem is caused by the fact that there are few people from the region, training as teachers, and he called upon youth from the area to go to teachers’ colleges.

People who spoke during the briefing said that the problem has not been addressed for the last ten years, and this was one of the reasons for the low pass rates in Silobela.

Mavima assured the meeting that Government was going to attend to the problem to address it.

“I was informed during the briefings that we have a shortage of Ndebele-speaking teachers in our local schools. I promise that as Government we are going to address the problem, “he said.

One of the villagers at the event, Derek Thumelo told The Mirror that most schools have a high number of Shona-speaking teachers who can hardly communicate in Ndebele.

“We are calling on Government to deploy Ndebele-speaking teachers in our local schools,” he said.

Silobela District Schools Inspector (DSI) Herbert Maziriri confirmed the problem and said it was because there was a shortage of Ndebele-speaking students joining teacher training programmes.

“We have such a problem; it is not limited to Silobela but affects the whole country. We call upon local students to take up teaching courses so that they can be deployed to teach in their indigenous languages,” said Maziriri.