Govt Warns Teachers Against Extra Lessons
The government has vowed to take action against teachers who mistreat learners whose parents would have failed to pay for extra lessons.
This comes after an unidentified parent in Norton, Mashonaland West Province, claimed that an ECD class taught by one Mrs. Chirombo was divided into groups of those who paid for extra lessons and those who didn’t.
It is alleged that Mrs. Chirombo only attends to paid-up pupils. The affected parent said:
Those audios are for my child who is doing ECD at Norton 1 School. I don’t know what it means.
At first, I thought that she was joking, but now the child has reported this for the third time.
My heart is in pain. I don’t know what I should do but my heart is bleeding. I don’t know how best you can help me.
My child is in ECD B Diamond, taught by Madam Chirombo.
Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro told NewsDay that relevant authorities will investigate the matter. Ndoro said:
Give us the names of schools, teachers and classes and we will deal with that immediately. If you can do that by Monday morning, our officials will be there.
We are now waiting for whistle-blowers to give us names of teachers who are engaging in those underhand and corrupt dealings.
We are waiting for people to give us information because sometimes we don’t have enough information as to who exactly is doing what.
We are going to bring sanity into the education sector by uprooting those rotten tomatoes that have been denying our learners their constitutional right to quality education.
The long arm of the law is going to catch up with those unscrupulous teachers and they will be dealt with in terms of the Code of Conduct and Prevention of Corruption Act.
He said parents and guardians should forward the names of teachers and schools involved in such malpractices.
Educators Union of Zimbabwe president Tafadzwa Munodawafa said the government is to blame for the malpractice as teachers are underpaid. He said:
Our union notes with concern the reported cases but we blame the government for negligence and being short-sighted.
We bemoan the decay of educational standards exhibited through classes between parents and teachers.
However, we attribute the blame to the government. By failing to pay teachers a living wage, the monster called extra lessons was created.
