Belvedere Teachers’ college
4 January 2020
Our case for world Class EDUCATION in our lifetime!
OUR Vision is to set Zimbabwe as the hub of education in the world starting with the establishing our country as the giant in the region and on the continent.
The IRONY is that Zimbabweans are running the world but seem to be struggling to run our own country.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHERS
Teachers are the custodians of the greatest resource.
Teachers are pillars and citadels nation building
Teachers are opinion leaders and opinion makers
Teachers have the respect of community
Teachers are role models of society
THE UTILITY OF EDUCATION
▪Education is critical foundation upon which nations are built. we will have to rebuild the nation through education. Education defines the character and civilization of a nation.
▪Neglecting education is jeopardizing the future of the nation. Education remains a key component of national development, transformation and must be prioritized as such.We are in the National transformation Revolution, a struggle to revolutionize our economies.
▪Without an earnest look at what and how we are teaching our children we run the risk of squandering the future.
▪The education crisis cannot be divorced from the national crisis
▪Bad governance and the state of the economy have led us to a place where teacher remuneration is low yet school fees are high. The system is not working for the teachers who cannot afford to live on their meagre wages not for parents who mostly cannot access education at the current fee levels.
▪The starting point is to deal with the root cause of the crisis ie bad governance and the broken economy
▪Thereafter, there needs to increase funding to the education sector
▪There needs to be more capital investment in school infrastructure including the refurbishment of buildings, providing adequate learning materials and textbooks to ensure that quality education is being provided
▪The restoration of the DIGNITY, Glitter and Glamour of the Teaching profession and education practitioners. There needs to be a restoration of the Govt and society’s respect for the teaching profession and improved teacher remuneration.Teaching should be a noble profession and honorable profession.OUR Teachers must be proud after retirement.
▪There needs to be a review of the new curriculum to evaluate whether it is achieving the objectives that were set out for it, whether it is well-funded and whether it is meeting the needs of industry and the 4th industrial revolution
In this regard, the MDC government, being a People’s government, pledges the following:
1. Provision of free primary school education.
2. The construction of new schools to reduce walking distances of travelling students.
3. Construction of new classrooms to reduce teacher to pupil ratio.
4. Ensuring adequate textbooks to all students at a ratio of 1:1
5. Ensuring e learning and the total transformation of Zimbabwe’s education system to
ICT based system. Ensuring that every child has an access to a computer.COMPUTER PER SCHOOL PER CHILD
6. Ensuring the modernisation of schools with up to date libraries, laboratories and
facilities for modern education.
7. Abandoning the out of context curriculum and adopting a new modern curriculum that prepares the country and make it competitive for the Information Age, the digital 21st century and beyond with an emphasis on machine Learning, the internet of things, Artificial Intelligence, nanotechnology and fourth Industrial Revolution.A new curriculum with a bias towards entrepreneurship, leadership
8. Ensuring that, teachers are adequately remunerated and that they have access to housing loans and decent housing facilities to teachers particularly in rural areas.
9. Encourage the twinning up of rural schools with international schools or urban schools.
10. Re-Introduction of loans and grants at tertiary institutions.
11. Introduction of Centres of excellence.
12. Emphasizing in the curriculum to make it multi-dimensional and more vocational.
13. Encouraging learning of sciences and technological sciences.
14. Encouraging the teaching of sports, arts and culture in schools.
15. Promote and support centres of vocational training in specialised foods and agriculture such as Gweru, Black Forby, and Chivero.
16. Transform Zimbabwean Universities into world class institutions leveraging on the talent and academic prowess of Zimbabweans.
17. Produce excess specialised skills in the field of medicine, sciences with a deliberate aim of exporting such skills.
18. Establish a framework for a modern democratic, functional model for early childhood development.
19. Roll out vocational skills and entrepreneurial training for youth empowerment.
20. Promote a reading culture in Zimbabwe.
21. Provision of adequate learning and teaching materials.
22. Filling of critical vacancies to improve the teacher to pupil ratio.
23. Rehabilitating and expanding education facilities.
24. Strengthening school supervision.
25. Merit-based promotions
26. Teachers’ rights shall be fully recognized.