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| Features |
| Yocris fighting for pupil education |
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by
Felix Malamula , 02 November 2006
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06:18:39
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Out of all challenges facing the Ministry of Education, shortage of teachers, mainly in primary schools has proved too hard to surmount. The ministry continuously broods over this problem with answers far from sight.
Various factors account for this shortage. The teaching profession these days is no longer attractive due to poor working conditions. It seems many go for teaching out of lack of alternatives.
It is not a surprise that when there are opportunities for employment elsewhere teachers go there in their large numbers, hence the high staff turnover.
These factors, coupled with lack of continuous grooming of new teachers by government to fill gaps left by the dead and those who leave teaching for green pasture, have aggravated the problem of shortage of teachers.
The talk today is about high teacher/pupil ratio that in other schools is as bad as one teacher to 250 pupils, which makes teaching and learning a very big challenge.
There is also the problem of unequal distribution of teachers in schools, which Youth and Children Rights Shield (Yocris), a Dedza-based non-governmental organisation, has taken head on.
“We have found that there is inequitable distribution of teachers compared to other schools within a zone,” complains Yocris executive director Bright Kampaundi.
He gives an example of Mankhamba Zone in the area of Traditional Authority Kachindamoto which has Matowe Primary School with 1,400 pupils yet has six teachers while Mankhamba primary has 1,136 pupils with 10 teachers.
“The situation on the ground is really bad,” observes Kampaundi and laments that all that is at the expense of pupils’ education.
He asks government to ensure that allocation of teachers is in accordance with pupils’ enrolment.
The problem is that teachers are in short supply. But Kampaundi’s argument is that while teachers are in short supply the problem should not be fuelled by unequal distribution.
District Education Manager for Dedza Chrisben Mchuchu accepts the problem of unequal distribution of teachers in the district. He observes that it is a problem that affects many other districts as well.
Unequal distribution of teachers, says Mchuchu, is partly due to movement of families of female teachers where women follow their husbands on transfer to various places.
“For example, Mankhamba Primary School has 10 teachers out of which seven are women who followed their husbands working in other government ministries and departments like health and police,” says Mchuchu.
“It will take long before achieving equal distribution of teachers because of family movements. The problem could be solved if we have more stakeholders like NGOs come into the rural areas as that would mean bringing teaching spouses into starved areas,” he adds.
Meanwhile, as a corrective measure, the education ministry has engaged services of volunteer teachers who Mchuchu says are helping to ease the pressure of lack of teachers in rural areas.
While the volunteer teachers are giving a helping hand, there is a problem of compromising quality. Here are individuals just picked without formal, or even informal training, to teach free of charge.
“These teachers are being upgraded through training sponsored by various stakeholders,” said Mchuchu before disclosing that the latest upgrading exercise in Dedza was done by World Vision Malawi at Chipoka in Salima recently.
Apart from the volunteer teachers, some retired teachers have also been recalled to save the situation.
A trained teacher is better than a volunteer teacher and a serving teacher is better than a retired one. Retired teachers are experienced but it is a fact that age has caught up with most of them. This is why Kampaundi feels more youthful teachers need to be trained.
“According to Policy Investment on Teachers training, government was supposed to be training 6,000 teachers every year. But currently, the government is training 2,800 teachers annually,” observes Kampaundi.
“It is against this background that we ask government to prioritise teacher-training, among other issues in the Ministry of Education,” he says.
Yocris’ fight is a noble one—to have basic education through teachers shared equally among primary schools in the country, and the pupil/teacher ratio should be improved.
With the current situation of one teacher against 300 pupils most teachers are working as pastors preaching to the multitudes. Most pupils, especially slow-learners are at a greater disadvantage.
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