PRIMARY and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora has called on teachers to form a professional body to guide their operations and ensure they stick to professional standards. .
BY Khanyile Mlotshwa
Speaking to journalists at Bulawayo Press Club on Saturday, Dokora said the proposed teaching professional council would keep a register of all teachers in the country
“Our education has reached maturity. We have reached a point where we should standardise the professionals in the sector. I always use the example of the legal and medical fields,” Dokora said after journalists had quizzed him over government’s decision to deploy non-Ndebele-speaking teachers to areas such as Matabeleland South province.
“You can get yourself a good medical degree, but will not practice in this country unless you are in the register of the Medical and Dental Practitioners’ Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ), a professional body in charge of a body of ethics. Once a medical practitioner is registered with this body, it is believed that what they are doing is ethical.
“No one goes into their surgery to see what they are doing. We will take this proposal (for a teaching professional council) to the government, through Cabinet, to codify a council. Here teachers will be taken as professionals. We will follow all the procedures, including Parliament and see it through.”
Dokora said the proposed body would also deal with issues of teachers’ welfare.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
“We have just been to a province where teachers, the 11 of them, live in a cottage. A professional, given responsibility to teach our youngsters, will have all these things (accommodation) sorted before they are transferred or deployed to a school. What stimulates professionals is not just a salary, but the environment in which they operate.”
He also questioned the Public Service Commission’s decision to employ temporary teachers while the country was teeming with unemployed graduate teachers.
