Parly hears of schools with one teacher teaching grades 1 to 7

Rushinga legislator Tendai Nyabani has told Parliament that there are schools in the country with a single teacher teaching grades 1 to 7.

Speaking in the National Assembly, Honourable Nyabani said, ‘’ In areas like Mbire, Rushinga, Muzarabani and Binga, there is only one teacher teaching Grades 1 to 7. How are these children going to write examinations like the rest of the children doing online lessons?

In his response, the Deputy Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Edgar Moyo said the matter was brought to his office and measures are being taken.

‘’That matter has been brought to our offices and we are dealing with it. The situation is not universal in all schools. Yes, there are schools that are in that kind of situation but there are others that are well resourced in terms of human resources.

‘’What really determines that usually is the attractiveness and the provision of amenities and accommodation in those areas? So, we are specifically attending to that and we hope that our human resources deployment strategy is going to address some of those issues,’’ he said.

The Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda advised the deputy minister to bring a Ministerial statement that would include the schools with one teacher.

School examinations update

Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Moyo gave an update on the examination issue, indicating that some will spill into 2022.

‘’The examination dates have only been given insofar as when they are going to begin and that is end of November for Grade Sevens. Mid-December, we are going to have the ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels which are going to overlap into 2022.

‘’Insofar as the point that children have lost time, we are employing catch up strategies to ensure that the children do catch up and one of them is through blended learning where we are using different learning and teaching platforms.

‘’Inclusive of that is going to be materials that are going to be given to children and some of them have not been given those materials and e-learning so that they do catch-up.

‘’Insofar as the dates, we are starting with Grade Sevens end of November and then overlapping into 2022 for the ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations. We think our children would have been prepared for examinations by that time,’’ he said.

Parly hears of schools with one teacher teaching grades 1 to 7