Highlighting the province’s plight to the Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai during a handover of classroom desks to a Simbala Primary School in Binga at an event held at Coghlan Primary School in Bulawayo yesterday, Matabeleland North provincial education director Mrs Boithatelo Mnguni said the province only had 89 qualified primary school teachers against 1 059 posts.
“There are many vacant posts that need to be filled, at the moment we have only 89 teachers only yet we need about 1 059 in total for all our primary schools in the province,” said Mrs Mnguni.
She said of the staff complement they had only 12 primary school teachers with university degrees.
“At the provincial level we have no people holding masters degrees or certified graduates in the field of education,” said Mrs Mnguni.
She said at secondary school level they had 366 teachers out of a total posts of 1 034.
“In the province we have about 7 310 pupils in our primary schools and the distribution of furniture is not adequate.
“At the ratio that furniture is being distributed, you will find out that one desk services 33 pupils, the same goes for the sitting space,” said Mrs Mnguni.
She said the teachers also faced a critical shortage of desks and the distribution was at 1:10 ratio.
Turning to the donation of 40 desks and 40 chairs by PM Tsvangirai, Mrs Mnguni said it would go a long in addressing some of the challenges facing the school.
“The school built a classroom block that had no furniture so this is a timely donation.
“We know it is not enough, but it will assist the pupils to have a decent education,” said Mrs Mnguni.
Handing over the desks to the school, PM Tsvangirai said education was one of the sectors that needed Government’s immediate attention.
“We need to properly equip our schools so that we provide quality education for these kids who still have a future,” he said.
PM Tsvangirai urged pupils to make use of the little resources that were coming their way.
“The pupils should work hard in their education bearing in mind the problems that the country is facing,” he said.