Unionist Kavihuha Mahongora has stressed that whoever is going to take over at the ministry of education as a substantive minister should be politically mature and inclusive.
Mahongora criticized the leadership style of the country’s previous two education ministers and bashed them for relegating unions.
The office of the education minister is yet to be occupied by a full-time minister after corruption convicted Katrina Hanse-Himarwa tapped out.
“I don’t want to prescribe what kind of minister we want. What I am interested in is a person who understands what education is. A person who is inclusive because no one will have knowledge about everything. The bottom line is that the person has a quality of good leadership. A person who can understand and appreciate trade unions for example, and teachers.
Now all these people who have been appointed, especially the previous two ministers of education, what we have picked up is that they align themselves with technocrats within their offices and they relegate the real players which are the teachers through their unions.
Some of them say we are going to consult the teachers directly leave the unions out. They know that teachers will only understand what’s at their level. Unions have departments that specialize in various areas which we have studied,” he said. .
Meanwhile, the number of high school pupils who made the grade dropped from 66,7% in 2018 to 61% in 2020.
Part-time candidates obtained 77,3% graded subjects, compared to 85,5% in 2018.
Deputy education, arts and culture minister Anna Nghipondoka weighed in to state that most institutions of higher learning insist on a Grade 3 or better in a National Senior Secondary Certificate (NSSC) higher-level subject as a minimum requirement for admission.
The number of students who made it to university dropped.
Nghipondoka also hit on the point that the NSSC higher level (NSSCH) results for 2019 did not meet the ministry’s expectations.
“I call upon all the role players in the education fraternity to redouble their efforts to ensure that the ministry meets its set targets. Now more than before, with the transition from the old curriculum to the revised curriculum we need to move away from our comfort zones and from behind closed doors and try out new approaches geared towards achieving quality educate with above-average performance.”
