Concerns have been raised in Parliament over the deployment of non-Nambya-speaking teachers to schools in Hwange district amid fears that children are being denied the opportunity to learn in their mother tongue during the critical early stages of education.
Hwange East legislator Joseph Bonda questioned why trained Nambya-speaking teachers were not being employed locally while teachers who do not speak the language continued to be deployed to Nambya-speaking communities.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare deputy minister Mercy Dinha said the Public Service Commission (PSC) was responsible for teacher deployment based on funded vacancies, staffing needs and equitable distribution of qualified personnel.
She said only attrition posts were currently being filled, limiting recruitment numbers, but insisted recruitment in Hwange was conducted locally and the PSC had been prioritising Nambya-speaking teachers.
“Since 2023, a total of 84 Nambya-speaking teachers have been recruited.
“Of that total, 30 were early childhood development teachers, 45 primary school teachers and nine secondary school teachers,” Dinha said.
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She added that the PSC remained committed to prioritising the recruitment, training and deployment of teachers with appropriate local language competencies, as stipulated in guidelines dated March 4, 2024.
But Bonda argued that many teachers trained to teach Nambya were being deployed outside Hwange, defeating the purpose of training them in the minority language.
“We find that most of them end up in Tsholotsho or in any other area of non-speaking Nambya language...,” he said.
“Their first preference is for them to enroll as Nambya teachers because they want to teach in Hwange.”
Dinha maintained that the PSC gives priority to local recruits in Hwange, insisting the 84 recruits since 2023 represented “quite a large number.”
However, the exchange exposed deeper frustrations in the Nambya-speaking community, which has long argued that the lack of mother-tongue instruction undermines educational outcomes for young learners.
Studies have shown that children learn best when taught in their first language during early childhood, making the deployment of non-Nambya-speaking teachers a potential disadvantage to learners in the district.
While the government insists it prioritises local language recruitment, Bonda’s concerns suggest that the policy is not being fully implemented, with trained Nambya teachers being sent elsewhere rather than to Hwange where they are most needed.