The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) says the ongoing profiling of learners by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is in line with the recommendations made by the Nziramasanga Commission report.
The Nziramasanga Commision of Inquiry was commissioned by the late former President Robert Mugabe in 1998 to review the then and future needs of the education system in Zimbabwe.
The Ministry of Education said that the profiling of pupils will enable their grooming and the nurturing of their skills progressively.
Under the programme, “Learning Support Services Client Profile Database”, profiles will be created for every learner.
ZIMTA chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu told the Chronicle that profiling of learners should go hand in hand with CALA. He said:
This should go hand in hand with the Continuous Assessment programme that the Ministry is implementing.
It should be able to assess the aptitudes of learners as they progress with their education to say a child is exhibiting traits of an electrical engineer and the child should be assisted in that development.
It is in line with the recommendations that were made by the Nziramasanga Report that the education path of children should be assessed progressively.
Ndlovu, however, said the profiling of pupils is being done prematurely as some schools especially in rural communities do not have computers to update learners’ profiles.
He also noted that there is a shortage of teachers in some schools which may affect the full implementation of the project. Ndlovu said:
We hope this programme will not come at the expense of the teacher, reducing their ability to concentrate on teaching learners. This will work in schools where the teacher-student ratio could be one is to 25.
But in areas where the teacher is attending to up to 50 learners, it will be difficult to implement as teachers will be overwhelmed.
According to Octopus, learner profiles help predict student growth in three ways:
- Learner profiles create a continuous chart of student variables and goals
- Learner profiles inform decision-making about the student’s needs
- Learner profiles engage students and parents in ownership & active learning
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