The Government has decentralised the deployment of teachers after parents, educationists, activists and politicians criticised the deployment of non-Ndebele-speaking teachers in Matabeleland, reported the Southern Eye.
Some commentators have blamed the deployment of non-Ndebele-speaking teachers in Matabeleland for the low pass rate in the region.
In 2022, the Silobela community protested against the deployment of non-Ndebele-speaking early childhood development (ECD) teachers.
The Member of Parliament for Nkayi North, Sithembiso Nyoni (ZANU PF), said the government has since decentralised the deployment of teachers.
Speaking during a virtual discussion organised by the Nkayi Community Parliament on Tuesday, Nyoni, who is the Environment, Climate and Wildlife Minister, said:
The recruitment of teachers is now localised. This is one of the issues that we fought for. What is left for us to fight for is that the head of Public Service in Nkayi and the head of the Education Department in Nkayi must work together and agree on the deployment.
I even engaged the permanent secretary of (Primary and Secondary) Education … The permanent secretary said it is up to us here to employ teachers from Nkayi.
Now the ball is in our court. We must make sure that the two departments recruit teachers who have local language capabilities. We have even submitted the list of teachers who are qualified for them.
We will have to make a follow-up to see if they have recruited them. The central government has since decentralised, it is up to us how we recruit the teachers.
The deployment of Shona-speaking teachers in all parts of the country has dominated Parliament over the years and at one time, parents pushed for the removal of teachers who did not speak the local language.
The government has previously said only teachers who speak the local language should take ECD classes.
Last week, Binga South legislator Fanuel Cumanzala(CCC) complained in the National Assembly over the deployment of non-Tonga-speaking teachers in Binga District.
He said there were qualified Tonga-speaking teachers who did not have jobs yet the Ministry of Education deployed non-Tonga-speaking teachers to Binga.
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