Ministry dismisses teacher unions’ curriculum claims
THE Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has dismissed sentiments from teachers’ unions that teachers were not trained to conduct continuous assessment for the new curriculum.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr Utete-Masango said teachers were adequately trained in all aspects of the new learning programme.
“Zimsec has been out in the field training trainers who are cascading the programme. You can’t tell me that all the training that has been going on is coming to naught. They (Zimsec) are not inviting unions, but teachers. So really we are not answerable to unions, training has not stopped. There has been training since last year and it’s continuing. Emphasis has been on those forms that are on the new curriculum,” she said.
Dr Utete-Masango said all schools have been supplied with the requisite tools to fully implement the new curriculum.
“What is happening now is that we are now training on syllabus interpretation. We have now moved from the curriculum framework. Curriculum framework is the policy and we are now coming to the actual learning areas as enshrined in the syllabi.
“The interpretation of those, the teachers’ guide, all those have been sent to schools,” she said.
Her comments came after unions accused the ministry of failing to train teachers on how to conduct continuous assessment of pupils, with the second term almost coming to an end. Under the new curriculum pupils’ individual performances are examined continuously over the duration of their learning, with their coursework and examination marks constituting their final grade.
Representatives of teachers who spoke to Sunday News last week claimed some schools were yet to receive modules for continuous assessment as well as specimen for examinations and marking schemes. This, coupled with lack of training, the unions said, had seen teachers failing to assess pupils, a critical process in determining the final grades at the end of each level. Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe president Dr Takavafira Zhou urged the Government to address irregularities in the implementation of the new education curriculum. “Since the inception of the new curriculum this year, there hasn’t been anything from either Zimsec or the ministry in line with the tasks that are supposed to be given to the learners at the end of every term. These tasks are a prerequisite for the profiling of learners as stipulated in this new curriculum and the syllabi. We are now deep into the second term, but there is nothing to guide the teachers on how to set up the examinations and how these tasks are to be done. Apparently, there should have been specimen papers and specimen marking schemes to guide the teachers. As such, teachers and learners are operating in darkness,” said Dr Zhou. The PTUZ president added that there was no standard yardstick that schools would use to assess pupils, leaving room for individual schools to cook marks for coursework to prop up their pupils’ results. Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said failure to address fundamentals such as training of teachers on continuous assessment would lead to a disaster. “Let me not agree that exams and test modules are not there in schools. Those things have been given to schools. What’s not there is training of teachers on how to use the modules. Nobody is there to train the teachers and this may see us having a false start to the new curriculum,” he said. Mr Ndlovu added that lack of resources was casting doubts on “the system’s capacity to implement the new curriculum”. “It is worrying that the commitment that we have to the curriculum is not matched with the same level of commitment when it comes to availing of resources,” he said.