‘Capacitate teachers for new curriculum’

THE Government has said practising teachers need to be retrained in preparation for the new education curriculum being introduced by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education next year.

The Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Professor Jonathan Moyo, said this while addressing members of the public at Hillside Teacher’s College’s 57th graduation ceremony yesterday where 511 teachers graduated.

“Another immediate requirement for the successful implementation of the new curriculum is that practising teachers should be capacitated to facilitate the teaching of new content.

“Therefore, our Ministry collaborating with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will institute in-service training programmes for teachers taking into account the national schools calendar,” said Prof Moyo.

He said teacher training colleges should adjust their syllabi in preparation for the new curriculum.

The new curriculum will see subjects such as Family and Religious Studies, Agriculture Engineering and Horticulture being introduced.

Prof Moyo said teachers’ colleges need to brace for the imminent changes in the education sector.

“It is important for Hillside and its sister colleges to produce teachers for the new secondary school curriculum that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will start implementing in 2017,” said Prof Moyo.

He said as his Ministry is ushering the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (Stem) revolution, teachers’ colleges should complement the revolution by enrolling more science teacher trainees.

Prof Moyo said the country’s education sector can only improve if teacher’s colleges come to the party.

“Schools can only have students achieving the expected high learning outcomes if teachers’ colleges raise teacher skills and depth of content. To raise the competences of teachers, Government is looking at increasing the number of institutions that offer teaching degrees,” he said.

Prof Moyo said it was encouraging that most colleges are prepared for the new challenge saying they have confirmed having requisite infrastructure to start offering degrees.

He urged Hillside Teacher’s College to consider introducing China’s Mandarin language as the Asian country has become a global force for trade.

“In line with current global trends, Hillside Teacher’s College has an opportunity to start producing teachers in other languages such as Mandarin in order to promote tourism. It is also true that the number of students going to study in China is growing and that creates a need for teaching Mandarin,” said Prof Moyo. — @nqotshili