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Auxilia Katongomara Chronicle Reporter
MATABELELAND North does not have even one qualified Advanced Level Physics teacher, a possible reason why schools in the province perform dismally in science subjects in public examinations.Provincial Education Director, Boithathelo Mnguni said schools in the province relied on temporary teachers to teach the subject.

“We don’t have a qualified physics teacher in the whole of Matabeleland North Province, which is worrying particularly for hard sciences because we can’t say they’re difficult but it’s a shortage of teachers, resources and laboratories,” said Mnguni.

She said only 34 pupils sat for Physics at Advanced Level last year and 85 for Biology, 24 for Chemistry and 128 for Mathematics in the whole province.

“We rely mainly on temporary teachers, graduates from the National University of Science and Technology who don’t have the pedagogy of teaching pupils at that stage as they’re not qualified teachers,” said Mnguni.

“Of significance, no child does biology in Binga, actually Binga has no chemistry, food science, physics, because the whole district has no science labs at A-Level and had a total of five candidates sitting for Mathematics last year.”

The PED said the government made an effort to construct a laboratory in Binga in 2013 but the money was insufficient.

“In 2013 government allocated us $60,000 for the construction of a science laboratory in Binga but the funds were not enough and it’s still at foundation level. Most of the teachers and pupils are scared to carry out experiments in class because it’s dangerous. When you’ve a fully equipped laboratory it’s easy to instil confidence in both the teacher and pupils. We received equipment for sciences but some of it is lying idle because we don’t have laboratories,” said Mnguni.

An investigation conducted by Chronicle at most schools in Matabeleland North province corroborated the state of affairs.

A teacher at John Tallach High School said their school relied on a degreed person who was not a qualified teacher.

“We don’t have a physics teacher at our school, we’ve a graduate who specialised in sciences teaching the subject because these teachers are hard to come by. However, we recorded good results in last year’s examinations,” said the teacher who cannot be named for professional reasons.

A source at St James High said the school had no physics teacher at A-Level but a chemistry teacher was taking the A-Level classes.

A senior teacher at David Livingstone said their school was not yet offering sciences at A-Level as they were two years old into offering Advanced Level education.

Other schools that confirmed the PED’s sentiments are Tshabanda in Tsholotsho, Fatima, Gloag, Tsholotsho and Hlangabeza high schools.
Sources at the schools said they heavily relied on graduates and temporary teachers as qualified teachers were lured by private schools in the cities.

A district education officer who declined to be named said the situation was worse at government schools particularly those in remote areas which are shunned by most teachers and graduates.

Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Deputy Minister, Godfrey Gandawa said his ministry was aware of the shortage of science teachers in schools.

“As a sister ministry and ministry responsible for training teachers we’re aware of the challenges of the science teachers in schools and we’re doing our best to train more science teachers. This has been caused by brain drain but suffice to say that as a ministry through our institutions of higher learning we’ve embarked on a number of programmes to capacitate our teachers and increase enrolment in science and mathematics education,” said Deputy Minister Gandawa.

He said his ministry had launched open distance learning programmes for specialist teachers.

“For example Bindura University of Science Education has embarked on intensive programmes like Virtual Open Distance learning in provinces targeting science and mathematics and we’ve already established centres in Fatima and Mzingwane areas. We’ve student teachers from these areas and also other areas graduating this year and we’re sure these will help these provinces,” said Deputy Minister Gandawa.

He said there were 2,900 science teachers studying at Bindura University of Science Education and other training institutions in the country.