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Teachers' Qualifications to Be Verified(AllAfrica Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Government has started verifying the qualifications of teachers in primary and secondary schools to identify skills gaps that could be addressed through the US$3 million Teacher Capacity Development Programme launched by President Mugabe in July this year.Primary and Secondary Education Ministry Permanent Secretary Mrs Constance Chigwamba said this at a ceremony to present the Secretary's Merit Award to Machekera Primary School in Uzumba on Thursday this week. The school produced the best Grade 7 results in Mashonaland East Province last year. "We have already started verifying teachers' qualifications in all the schools to determine which teachers have skills and which don't. We want all the teachers without teaching skills to acquire teaching skills as reiterated by President Mugabe in July," she said. "We want to assess their performance with a view to further equip them with new skills that can help maintain the country's learning standards at a high level." The Teacher Capacity Building Programme seeks to improve teachers' skills to meet the demands of a modernising education system and a broadening curriculum that now includes ICT skills. The programme is the brainchild of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and that of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development. Universities are at the centre of the programme and were each assigned an area that addresses specific needs of the country's teachers. The programme has an initial US$3 million budget which will see teachers upgrade themselves to masters level while a few will be assisted to advance to PhD level on research programmes identified by the two ministries. Mrs Chigwamba dismissed rumours that all university graduates who are teaching without qualifications would lose their jobs. "Graduates who are teaching without teaching qualifications will not lose their jobs but we will sponsor them to acquire the teaching qualifications through distance learning," she said. Copyright The Herald. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). |