daniel chigunwe
Blessings Chidakwa
Herald Reporter
THE Government will recruit more than 8 000 teachers next year in a move aimed at reducing the teacher-pupil ratio and enhancing the quality of education offered in the country, a Cabinet Minister has said.
In an interview, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Torerai Moyo, thanked President Mnangagwa for providing funding to recruit more teachers.
“In 2024 we recruited more than 5 000 teachers. That has tremendously reduced the high teacher-pupil ratio.
“With more support in 2025, we expect to recruit more than 8 000 so that we can reduce the teacher-pupil ratio to around 1:30 or 35,” he said.
Minister Moyo said teachers in remote areas that usually travel long distances to work are set to benefit from hardship allowances, with the Government implementing a cocktail of measures to bridge the gap between rural teachers and their urban counterparts.
Under the Second Republic, Government is also upgrading rural schools to improve the quality of education offered.
Minister Moyo said as they continue to bridge urban-rural divide, 150 rural schools have been solar powered, with more earmarked for the coming year.
The Government also plans to build 2 800 schools to further reduce the distance learners walk to school.
Minister Moyo said plans were afoot to provide teachers from remote areas with hardship allowances.
“There is a hardship allowance because we know some of the schools are located quite a distance from the living quarters.
“Where teachers might be walking a kilometre or more, we tend to provide a hardship allowance,” he said.
Minister Moyo said the Government is also upgrading rural schools to improve the quality of education.
“We used to have quite a number of disparities in terms of access to education, opportunities to access digital tools and some schools did not even have electricity, but the Government has solarised some of the schools supported by UNICEF.
“We receive support from the fiscus where we are allocated funds towards teaching learning materials. About 150 schools were solarised this year,” he said.
Minister Moyo said they have also decentralised the recruitment of teachers where even the most competent can be deployed to rural areas.
He said normally teachers prefer to work in schools close to their homes and in such instances, some might even choose to work from their homes.
Zimbabwe is ahead of its African peers in the provision of quality education with the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa committing a huge chunk of its budget towards the sector.
Currently, Government is building new schools to ensure every child, regardless of location or financial background, acquires basic education.
For perspective, while on average a child in Africa has to walk more than 15km to access the nearest school, in Zimbabwe the average distance is 5km.
While on the continent it is estimated that 9 out of 10 children under the age of nine find it hard to read or write, in Zimbabwe only one out of 10 children under 9 years can neither read nor write.
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