Gwanda North legislator Desire Nkala has condemned the Primary and Secondary Education Ministry’s proposed sanctions against teachers in Bulilima District, Matabeleland South, over persistently low examination results.
A circular issued by Bulilima District Schools Inspector Gobile Gobile revealed that the Ministry is considering disciplinary action against educators who have recorded a 0% pass rate over the past five years.
The document indicated that more than 15 teachers across various secondary schools have failed to secure a single pass in subjects including Heritage Studies, Geography, Combined Science, and Mathematics. The Ministry regards such persistent underperformance as gross incompetence, a dismissible offence.
Nkala, however, argued that penalising teachers under these conditions was unjust, particularly when students are forced to sit on the floor, science lessons are conducted without laboratories, and some schools lack roofs entirely.
He accused the government of practising “educational apartheid,” with urban schools flourishing while rural pupils are left severely disadvantaged. Said Nkala:
“The most painful thing is that now teachers are being attacked, but the government has created segregation within the education sector, as urban schools have most resources compared to rural areas where they even lack furniture for students hence this shows that the government has to address the main challenges first, which is shortage of resources within rural education.”
Nkayi South MP Jabulani Hadebe voiced similar concerns, describing the daily challenges confronting rural educators. He said:
“Teachers walk kilometres for water, handle classes of 140 students and sleep in huts — yet the ministry calls them failures? The real failure is a system that abandons its children.”
Hadebe further noted that inadequate salaries and poor working conditions have forced thousands of teachers to leave the area, leaving untrained staff to cover science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects.
He added that the majority of subjects being failed in rural schools are in the sciences, largely due to a lack of essential teaching equipment.
More: Southern Eye
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