Brighton Chiseva
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Tumisang Thabela has said transforming the education system to suit the everyday life Zimbabwean situation was moving at a snail pace, far less than anticipated.
Thabela who has been on record saying the education system was still divorced from the current situation said steps were being taken towards achieving the desired results but the pace was not as fast as they anticipated.
Speaking during a media engagement workshop organized by MoPSE in Darwendale recently on curriculum review, Thabela said they were receiving a lot of feedback on the curriculum review process, a development that shows the ministry is in the right direction.
“We are receiving a lot of feedback on curriculum review. However, change is difficult to accept, that is why we still have challenges. We are doing teacher training and capitation but it takes time to adapt. Some people are not comfortable to use ICT so we still have a long way to go,” said Thabela.
In a move aimed at aligning and transforming the education sector with the Zimbabwe’s everyday life, the Ministry of Primary and secondary education introduced Continuous Assessment of Learning Activities (CALAs).
Since their inception however, CALAs have brought a huge burden on all stakeholders involved, who are learners, teachers and parents.
Parents have been complaining for some time that they are the one doing CALAS on behalf of their children who are finding it difficult to do most of the tasks that they are required to do.
Since the activities contribute 30 percent to the total examination mark, parents are then forced to do the work on behalf of their children and those who cannot have resources end up paying teachers to do them.
On the other hand, teachers are also complaining that many of them are yet to grasp all the concepts involved in teaching and monitoring of CALAs and that the work that needs to be done is too much for one teacher since most classes have more than the standard teacher-pupil ratio.
This has opened a window for teachers to be involved in unscrupulous means of earning extra cash through charging pupils to help with CALAs.
The pupils on their part are also complaining that the work required is too much and some of the things needed are beyond their reach hence they are forced to fork out money to buy some of the requirements as well as transport to where they can get the material needed.
Thabela however, said parents should not pay for CALAs saying there should not be any cost attached to the doing of CALAS and teachers are aware of that.
She said teachers should give CALAs that can use locally available resources not those that would require parents to fork out money to buy materials.
“Parents should not pay for CALAs either to the teacher to help their children or to buy requirements. They should be done at zero cost and teachers are well aware that they should give tasks that need locally available resources unless they go out for educational tours,” said Thabela
She also warned parents against doing the work for their children but rather assist.
On the issue of awarding more marks to CALAs owing to the labour, resources and time needed for them to complete them, Thabela said they were still engaging relevant authorities to look into the matter.
“As we are doing the curriculum review, we are going to liaise with ZIMSEC and other stakeholders and look into the issue of reviewing marks.
She also said the competence-based curricular was being overshadowed by Higher and Tertiary Education’s 5.0 philosophy saying they will engage stakeholders and the media to promote it so that people understand what it is all about.
Speaking at the same event, the Ministry’s Director of Information Taungana Ndoro said they were in a process of decentralizing access to information especially to the media which he said was key in giving vital information to stakeholders.
“We are working on something to do with decentralization of access to information and soon information will be found at provincial offices,” said Ndoro.
On the issue of parents paying teachers for CALAs and conducting of extra lessons, Ndoro said parents were the ones to blame since they are the ones paying teachers saying they should shun such practices and report to the relevant authorities.
