Friday, March 29, 2024

Concerned Villagers asks Government to monitor Teachers

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Concerned Villagers in Nadongo area in Moomba ward have called for concerted efforts in monitoring of teachers to improve standards of education in the country.

Village Headman Mozelly Halwiindi noted that the ministry of education should consider setting up monitoring programmes on all teachers in the country to improve the education standards in the country.

He said the performance of pupils in his area was worrying mainly due to inadequate teaching as most teaching staff spent most of their time travelling to Monze for their own business at the expense of teaching.

“As long as we these teachers who have the latitude to abandon classes at will and spend more time gallivanting from here to town, we shall continue to witness a dismal performance from our children.

“ I therefore, appeal to the Ministry of education to intensify monitoring in schools so that these teachers become committed to duty,” said Mr. Halwiinde.

But Nandogo Deputy School Headmaster, Mr. Honest Mugoba attributed the poor performance of pupils at the school to absenteeism.

Mr. Mugoba added that parents too were to blame as they often force their male children to herd cattle, while girls are forced to do other household chores instead of encouraging them to go to school.

“The biggest problem is that most of the pupils do not come to school because they are forced to herd cattle or do household chores and so the poor performance is attributed to that…….Not that teachers are not teaching,” said Mr. Mugoba.

The school, built in 1960 has a total of 448 pupils and recorded a negative pass rate during the 2014 examination results.

21 COMMENTS

  1. Clearly there is something wrong here. The headman blames the teachers and the Head teacher blames the parents. While it is true that we should have monitoring programme in place, there should also be refresher courses for the existing teachers who still use old teaching methods- one just leaves an old exercise book(1989) for students to copy notes the whole time(nothing is being learnt!)

    • This man is wasting his precious air by talking. There is no one listening. Ministry of education is fild with UPND mentality. No one pays attention to such words

  2. Some of these teachers they just want to draw salaries without even working. I visisted my village in Kasempa in 2012, its the same attitude from these lazy teachers. They never found in class to teacher our children. The Ministry of education should be monitoring them every month and assess their performance. DEBS are also idle in their duties.

  3. That headman is not a teacher and should not talk about teaching. People should never at any point compare rural pupils to those in town. I once taught in rural and pupils there are not slow learner but slow motion learners.
    Only a few but mostly grade 8s and 9s can not read and write so how can a teacher teach in this case.
    That headman should not talk about education.

    • Thats not right. Any one has the right to talk about education in this country and the conduct of teachers in particular. Yes most teachers are in teaching to earn a living without necessarily doing the job. The ministry should come up with measures of monitoring teachers. Nowadays teachers do not care whether the whole class fails and DEBS will be there quite. Its just everywhere. Rural education is neglected. Go to Mapatizya in Zimba, Kafwambila, Siameja in Sinazongwe, its all the same. yes not all of them do that, but most of them will either be drunkards or running up and down the whole week without teaching and headteachers will be there doing nothing because they are also part of the system. So do not say the Hon. Headman has no right to talk about rural education.

    • uludumale: What an Ar.se of a teacher you are! If the pupils cannot read or write, I thought you would have known that it is because the teachers did not teach them to read or write as teachers were spending time going to town!
      The job of teachers is to teach pupils to read and write and that is your career. It is not Nurses, Clinical Officer or Agricultural Assistants to make kids literate but you teachers!
      When pupils fail en masse like that, you have to sack (not transfer) all teachers and start afresh because the problem is systemic! These are useless ar.sewhores are not paid to make future lives of our kids miserable!

    • Check your sentence ba Teacher. It should not read “Only a few but mostly grade 8s and 9s can not read” but should read ” only a few and mostly grade 8s and 9s can read”. Its you who is a slow learner

  4. I think we have found the solution within this article, as both parties know where to improve. Trouble will be if the counter accusations are perpetuated; then we will have an egg and hen cycle – who should change first? Both should change, NOW! Mwamvwa basa, nobana Nandogo/Nadongo – whichever?

  5. The blame game must stop.Let there be registers one for teachers & another for pupils.DEBS then should monitor teacher absenteeism & the Headman/Chief to follow-up parents if their children are absent.

  6. The whole education system is now rotten in this country. From the smallest community school in the rural parts of the country up to state house. There are no longer monitoring mechanisms in place now. Even the Head Teachers are culprits. Its very difficult for a wanting teacher to be fired. There are no performance assessments for teachers in place. They even boast that once they get a Job with GRZ, then thats it. Thats the reason why they join GRZ cause there is a notion amongst most Civil Servant that its easy to Malinger and do your own things. Compare results from Mission schools and those from GRZ schools. Mission schools heads are strict with teachers and follow a strict code of conduct demanded from both pupil and teacher.

  7. I visited Munkonge area in Kasama on a working trip, I found kids roaming around and asked why they were not in school. They complained that teachers spend a week or 2 in Kasama shopping immediately after pay day. One of the kids actually shed tears saying that the teachers themselves got an education and this is what they pay in return. The boy even told us to report the teachers to relevant authorities. It was very touching. Its different with mission schools no matter the location. No wonder i strive by all means to take my kids and relatives to mission schools.

  8. Some of these teachers went into teaching as a last resort after failing their grade 12 exam. They have no interest in it. I saw a video clip on Muvi TV of one teacher in Chipata being dragged to the Police station. The teacher was heavily drunk and his appearance was not that of a teacher. He looked like a vagabond.

    • Gone are the days when grade twelve failures were allowed to join teaching with poor results. Check the entry requirements now.

  9. There is a big problem in the ministry of education. mr president invest in pipo not your ministers. let your ministers monitor what is hapening in their ministries. let each minister and deputy tour each province once in a month. it will bring efficiency in ur govt

  10. When jobs were plenty it was difficult to recruit teacher. But now due to lack of jobs even those who have no calling in this noble profession have joined just for money. It is fact that even here town teachers spend most of their time in bars. Just visit any bar in Wusakile right now and you will find that 9 out of 10 patrons having a morning chill are teachers. No wonder they want salary increments every month. The Head Man is 100% right. In town the difference is that many parents can afford extra tuition for their children.

  11. What money is there in teaching anyway? teachers are forces to find extra ways of adding to their salaries. How can they afford to survive with families?

  12. whars the use of setting aside 650 million to build 5 universities when there will be no-one to educate due to poor teaching qualitie in schools…all basic schools were upgraded to primary schools but yet they still don’t have proper classes/books etc..Spend the money on revamping schools and then build universities..

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