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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
POOR pass rates in Matabeleland North schools took centre stage at an ongoing workshop where stakeholders are crafting a Provincial Economic Development Plan, amid concerns that the province’s main challenge is human capital.

A cross-section of stakeholders has been meeting here at the workshop whose main aim is to craft a five-year Provincial Economic Development Plan that will guide the province in implementing Government policies and determine the type of investment needed in line with National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1), a fiscal and macro-economic compass for economic development from 2021 to 2025.

The provincial economic blueprint aims at improving the livelihoods of the general citizenry in the rich province in terms of availability of resources but poor in terms of quality of livelihoods according to the latest ZimVac report.

The province has identified priorities and formed thematic working committees to craft development matrices.

One of the priority areas is the Human Capital Development chaired by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education which during its presentation raised the issue of poor pass rates affecting development.

A significant number of schools in the province have recorded zero pass rate over the years.

Participants said Matabeleland North’s main challenge is human capital and urged community leaders to help parents understand the importance of education as the pass rate is a cause for concern.

This follows concerns that besides limited access to education as a result of distance from school, shortage of learning infrastructure and poverty, some youths especially in Tsholotsho and Lupane district drop out of school to go to South Africa for menial jobs.

Participants said as part of the provincial plan, there should be a deliberate move to register all informal schools which operate as satellites of other learning institutions.

They called for infrastructure for special needs groups in the spirit of not leaving anyone behind.

Stakeholders said the issue of salaries needs to be addressed to motivate teachers so they are role models to the kids they teach.

Matabeleland North Provincial Education Director Mr Jabulani Mpofu attributed the poor pass rate to shortage of textbooks and poor living standards for teachers among other causes.

“We have a number of issues such as the issue of textbooks affecting us as Matabeleland North. As a province, we have a high staff turnover and in Binga, about 300 teachers want to leave because of various reasons including poor accommodation facilities hence we change teachers regularly and this contributes to failure by learners. We also have other issues like eGoli syndrome in Tsholotsho and mining syndrome in Bubi,” said Mr Mpofu.

He said Government and its partners had intensified school-based home-grown feeding schemes so as to prevent school drop-outs.

Matabeleland North Provincial Development Coordinator Mrs Sithandiwe Ncube said there is need to interrogate the reasons that push teachers to want to leave the province so that they are addressed.

Chief Shana of Jambezi said the issue of deployment of teachers should also be addressed in the Provincial Development Plan.

Over the years communities have expressed concern about posting teachers who don’t speak a local language as a major contributor to low pass rates.

“Parents in the communities are complaining that teachers who are deployed in schools are non-speakers of the local languages hence this affects learning as children struggle to grasp concepts,” said Chief Shana.

Hwange District Development Coordinator Mr Simon Muleya said the option of localised recruitment could be helpful.

“As we craft this provincial plan, let’s hope provinces and districts will have the leeway to recruit. Right now Matabeleland North is ground for anyone who wants to earn a Government EC Number and leave immediately,” he said.

Participants said there is a dire need to work hard to improve the education standards in the province.

They said poor education standards are the reason why there is importation of labour hence the need to develop education infrastructure to produce skills locally.

Matabeleland North has no vocational training centres or youth centres for skills development despite the vast industries such as mining, tourism and timber.

The draft economic blueprint will be finalised today. — @ncubeleon