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Teacher training colleges have lowered the requirements for prospective student teachers to compensate for a sustained lack of interest in the profession, senior officials confirmed last week.
This comes amid reports that 14 000 teachers have left the profession since January due to poor remuneration and deteriorating conditions of service. Teachers earn less than $1 200 a month, which is just enough to buy five loaves of bread. Educationists fear the lowering of entry qualifications at the institutions would further compound the crisis in the country’s schools already grappling with falling standards on many fronts. One of the hardest hit institutions is the United College of Education (UCE) in Bulawayo, which trains primary school teachers. Primary school teacher training colleges normally require five "O" Level passes including Mathematics and English but the institutions are said to be willing to recruit those without the two subjects. The institutions are also forgoing the pre-selection interviews. UCE’s acting principal, Sipho Moyo, said the new recruitment directives were a serious cause for concern. He warned that some colleges might even be forced to close down because of the poor response from school leavers. "Of current concern to the college administration is the apparent drop in the enrolment figures over the last two years," he said. "In order to meet the numbers, the college has dropped the requirement for interviews for prospective students," he said. "The sudden reversal in the quest for education and training is something that has to be looked at urgently otherwise colleges will become white elephants." The college’s intake for this year dropped from 350 students to less than 200. Raymond Majongwe, the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general who said over 14 000 quit the profession in eight months, acknowledged the drop in enrollment figures at colleges because of low salaries. "We continue to lose teachers at an alarming rate but the government continues to turn a blind eye to the crisis," he said. He said although there was no conclusive survey on staff levels, the estimates of over 14 000 teachers who left the profession could be an understatement. "And this has also resulted in most people shying away from joining the education sector because of low salaries, forcing colleges to relax entry requirements thereby compromising standards," Majongwe said. Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere was not immediately available for comment. Zimbabwe is facing a severe shortage of teachers who continue to leave the country in droves in protest over poor pay and working conditions. The country now employs 1ess than 110 000 teachers when it requires at least 200 000. By Nqobani Ndlovu
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