The Standard

15th November 2015

Tapiwa Nyamweda raises her hand timidly to respond to questions while seated on baking sands in what passes for a classroom at Dambudzo Primary School.

Dambudzo is a council-owned school in Kwekwe’s high-density suburb of Mbizo.
For Nyamweda, school starts at 12pm, by which time her peers from other schools in the low-density areas would be starting swimming, tennis or hockey lessons.

Dambudzo Primary School, with an enrollment of 1 417 pupils, is not the only school which has to conduct classes under trees in this mining town.

Several other schools have also resorted to this “hot-sitting” arrangement in order to cope with the influx of students that continue to pile pressure on the few inadequately resourced schools.

The schools do not receive any funding from government and depend on levies collected from the poor parents in the community of Kwekwe, where people are losing jobs in their hundreds as companies continue to close.

According to Midlands education director Agnes Gudo, educational infrastructure in the province is in a sorry state.

Some schools, she said, especially in the rural areas, did not even have critical facilities like toilets.
She said Early Childhood Education (ECD) was especially compromised because of this lack of adequate infrastructure.

“We also do not have resources such as vehicles to effectively run these institutions because government has failed to provide them,” Gudo told Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa recently.

Midlands has 637 primary schools, 132 of them being satellite schools found on farms expropriated from white farmers at the height of the controversial land reform programme.

About 32 of them have had to enrol students that double their capacity, resulting in the hot-sitting programme being initiated to accommodate the many children.

During a visit at Zivombvu Seconday school in Silobela in the inclusive government era, then minister of Education David Coltart was shocked to find a single two classroom block housing nearly 150 students from Form 1 to 4.

Coltart then said he had sourced over $60 million to build infrastructure, mostly in rural schools in order to improve the quality of learning.

But the situation at Zivombvu is still bad, so much that when it rains, students cannot attend classes as the entire student population, together with their teachers must find shelter from the rain in the two classrooms.

There are no textbooks at most of the satellite schools, just as qualified teachers are equally scarce.

Kwekwe mayor Matenda Madzoke lamented the sorry state of schools in the town, saying lack of investment spelt doom for future generations.

He said the shortage of formal schools was the major reason for the mushrooming of unregistered colleges.

“The shortage of learning facilities in Kwekwe has forced many of our pupils to fall victim to illegal colleges, which do not even have basic facilities,” Madzoke said.

At Riverside Primary School — 10km outside Kwekwe — lessons are conducted in what used to be an ostrich meat butchery and a workshop.

According to officials, the pass rate at the school is very low as many pupils fail to attend school during the rainy season and in winter.

Midlands province recorded a 48,3% pass rate for Grade Seven results in 2013 and 55,5% in 2014, but critics said the results did not reflect the true picture of the state of education in the province.

Gudo said Midlands was also facing a serious shortage of science and maths teachers.

She urged the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to roll-out the teacher capacity development programme in order to address the problem.

Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora has urged his staff to stretch themselves and achieve high-quality results, even with the little resources at their disposal.

School development committees (SDCs) have been the engines of development at various schools but their work is often hampered by ill-advised government directives.

Rio Tinto SDC secretary, Owen Matava said the freezing of school fees at a time when water, electricity, building and learning material costs were going up, did not serve the interests of the schools.

“Government has said parents should run these schools; they should therefore allow us room to do what’s best for our school,” he said.

“We cannot improve infrastructure and quality of education if the fees being paid are low and government is not subsidising anything. It is therefore government’s fault that most schools are in a sorry state,” he said.

After winning the 2013 elections, Zanu PF imposed a ceiling on school fees, accusing schools of burdening poor parents.

Eye Witness News

14th November 2015

JOHANNESBURG – African Union (AU) chairperson, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has sent her condolences and solidarity to French President Francois Hollande and the people of France following the deadly mass attacks in that country.

At least 125 people are now known to have died in the attacks, which were the worst terror attacks in France’s history.

The Islamic State has since claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Bataclan music hall where California rock band Death Metal was performing, the Stade de France where French President Francois Hollande was among soccer match spectators and a number of restaurants in Paris came under attack.

The AU chairperson says she has learnt with shock and disbelief of the attacks in Paris.

Dlamini-Zuma has condemned the mass killings in the strongest terms, calling the acts despicable and barbaric.

She has called for swift action in the search for those behind the attacks and says they must be brought to book.

Dlamini-Zuma has also wished a speedy recovery to those wounded and says the AU stands in solidarity and in full support of the people of France.

ZIMBABWE TOP OFFICIALS ADD TO CONDEMNATION

Top officials in Zimbabwe have been adding their voices to the condemnation of the attacks in Paris last night.

Local government minister Saviour Kasukuwere tweeted that terror was unacceptable and despicable.

His remark echoed that of David Coltart, the lawyer and former education minister from the opposition MDC, who said that terrorism and violence in any form was evil.

Revulsion to these attacks has been voiced by Zimbabweans on many social media platforms.

Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo pointed out on Twitter that this attack in Paris was an attack on humanity and didn’t just affect the French.

Zimbabwe has its own high level UNESCO delegation in Paris at the moment, attending the UN body’s general conference.

The Chronicle

3 November 2015

FORMER Education and Sports Minister David Coltart stands accused of having wielded so much influence in the administration of Zimbabwe Cricket (ZC) that he even triggered the axing of Stephen Mangongo as the senior national team coach ahead of the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Mangongo was axed in dramatic fashion in December last year, just a few weeks before the Chevrons embarked on their World Cup tour in New Zealand and Australia, and was replaced by Aussie coach Dav Whatmore.

The Chevrons lost five of their six group games – going down to South Africa by 62 runs, West Indies by 73 runs, Pakistan by 20 runs, India by six wickets and Ireland by five runs – while only beating Associate nation United Arab Emirates. The senior national team has also slumped to an embarrassing home series defeat, in both the One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 internationals to Afghanistan.

Amid an explosion of the usual boardroom battles at ZC, Coltart is now being accused of exerting his influence to shape the game, and triggering the axing of Mangongo and remote controlling the running of domestic cricket. Coltart has always been a fierce critic of Mangongo and Givemore Makoni, the former ZC convener of selectors, with the two accusing the former Sports Minister of pushing a racist agenda to weed them out of the game.

The Bulawayo-based politician, who was accused of playing a leading role in smuggling the political baggage which the game was forced to carry ahead of the 2003 World Cup, including allegations that he flew to Cape Town to persuade England not to fly to Zimbabwe for their match, has also been a fierce critic of former ZC managing director Ozias Bvute.

Now, it has been revealed that Coltart played a key role in the axing of Mangongo. An email that he wrote to former ZC chairman Wilson Manase reveals that Coltart badly wanted Mangongo to be removed from his post.

“You have asked what needs to be done and I suggest the following:
1) At the very least Mangongo must be removed as coach of the national team. When a coach loses the respect of players it is very difficult to regain that trust. I know it is hard doing this so close to the World Cup but I don’t believe you have any other choice. Of course, it will be difficult to get a replacement at such late notice but I am sure that any number of former players would step into the breach — what you need is a good man manager as our lads already have superb talent. I think that Douglas Hondo, Wayne James and even Ray Price would do a good job.

2) You need to at the very least get more balance in selection – I recognise that, politically, it may be hard to sack Makoni and Mangongo at the same time, but Makoni works closely with Mangongo and has lost the respect of the vast majority of players – he uses similar tactics to Mangongo. I am aware that he is not listening to either the wishes of (Elton) Chigumbura or (Brendan) Taylor and they were astonished by some of his choices. Ideally, he should be removed but if you can’t go that far now, then I think you need to create a panel involving former players – bring in (Tatenda) Taibu as a selector so that the race card cannot be played and perhaps another former player and state that the majority must prevail. Then in the World Cup don’t send the convener of selectors (that often happens with other Test teams) and leave the day-to-day selection at the World Cup to the coaching team and captain.

3) Those are the immediate things you need to do in the run up to the World Cup but you should go further. The tragedy of ZC is that there are many non-racist whites who genuinely want cricket to flourish among all races. You should identify those people and bring them into your structures as they will help you, not work against you. There are obvious people like Heath Streak but there are others out there. Stuart Carlisle is one but I am sure that people like John Rennie and Ray Price would get involved in the franchises if you asked them to. I know this is a balancing act – you don’t want to be accused of being an Uncle Tom and no one wants to see cricket return to the days of white dominance – we need a partnership and I think that there are many whites and Asians who would work under you helping implement your vision, not some racist agenda. I think you would be surprised how much goodwill there is out there amongst people who just want Zim Cricket to thrive – they don’t care whether it is Vusi Sibanda or Sean Williams scoring runs – they just want the team to perform to its best ability.

4) Then I think you need to deal with the fraudulent past. I know this is a tough call but those who have looted the coffers, at the very least, should be excluded from further involvement and ideally held to account. Until you do so you will battle to get the corporate support you need because the perception in the business community is that Zim Cricket is a bad brand – and they don’t want their companies associated with it. You can only deal with that perception by taking some symbolic steps.

“There is more but that is enough for this evening. I recognise you have a tough job. No matter what you do you will be attacked for taking a stand. But one thing is clear, if you do not act, then cricket, as we know it today, or rather yesterday, in Zimbabwe, will die.

“I spoke to Alvord Mabena on Sunday about the state of the NRZ and he was speaking about just how hard it is for him to try to turn the organisation around now as chairman because so much of the institutional memory of the organisation has been lost. A similar danger faces ZC – if we lose the current crop of players, it will be hard to retain Test status and we may become (an) Associate member or simply a Test member who no-one plays against.

“If that happens we will go the way of Kenya and sadly you will be the person accused of causing its demise because it will happen during your watch. “However, if you act boldly and turn it around you will get the credit.”

New Zimbabwe.Com

2 November 2015

Below is an article by Zimbabwe Cricket chair Tavengwa Mukhulani on former sports minister David Coltart’s continued involvement with the sport.

ZIMBABWE Cricket and I have noted with serious concern David Coltart’s unfortunate remarks in a Facebook post accusing ZC of racism for making changes in the senior national team’s backroom set-up that resulted in batting coach Andy Waller losing his job while bowling coach Douglas Hondo was redeployed to the Zimbabwe A side.

Coltart’s views are misplaced. We are not in the business of rewarding effort, we reward results. We do not consult him who we hire and fire. And as a matter of policy, we do not discuss employee issues in the media beyond making necessary announcements. Coltart does not need to be satisfied by our actions. The statistics he is quoting, are not good enough to win us games. They are just numbers. They may be right in term of statistics, but that does not win us matches.

The scurrilous allegations that Coltart has made will not force us to deviate from the norm. Suffice to say, we as the custodians of the game of cricket in Zimbabwe have the prerogative to make decisions that we believe will take the sport forward.

And when we make changes to our coaching structures, we do not consider one’s skin colour as Coltart alleges. ZC has approached Grant Flower to come back home and take up the batting coach position. Grant, however, indicated that he was serving his contract in Pakistan until July 2016. And again we do not need to seek Coltart’s approval on that. And it must be noted that when he left ZC, the Board did not get rid of him as is being alleged by Coltart. He resigned to take up a coaching position in Pakistan.

Alistair Campbell resigned according to the communication that he sent. He had personal frustrations stemming from unfulfilled promises that had been made to him by then chairman Wilson Manase. He said the final nail on the coffin was that his son had not been selected in the Under-19 squad for the World Cup. He was also frustrated that ZC had not appointed his son’s coach within its structures.

Campbell then proposed to be a consultant to ZC, working three months in a year earning a huge monthly salary, with school fees being paid for his children at Falcon, three regional trips and three international trips per year. This proposal was denied by ZC.
Coltart claims that the current board removed key responsibilities from Campbell. The only change is that domestic cricket was assigned to the Game Development department and rightfully so because domestic cricket falls under development.

The Manase board had created the post of Director Game Development without assigning the responsibilities. And, so when the new board came in, it had to assign the domestic cricket function to the new director of Game Development. The commercial aspect was never taken away from him. Even if any responsibility had been taken from Campbell we cannot work on the basis of comments from the gallery.

ZC must be able to evolve on its own. All the black players that Coltart boasts were coached by Stephen Mangongo and simply because Mangongo is black he cannot give him that credit. Taibu, Chigumbura, Masakadza, Sibanda, Utseya, Chibhabha were coached by Mangongo.

Coltart only knew them when they were in the national team whereas Mangongo knew them when they were in Grade Three facing resistance from the same people that he said should take over ZC.

And where was Coltart? Are these players not a product of a sound development system?

The problem with Coltart is that he thinks an ex-cricketer is only a white player. For instance he gave the famous interim chairman Manase the instruction to engage Stuart Carlisle, John Rennie, Ray Price, Heath Streak, Wayne James.

Any names suggested outside Coltart’s bank of white cricketers is incompetent, not good enough. In one of his instructive emails to Manase, he suggested that Taibu be brought in as a selector so that the race card would not be played and that Manase would not appear to be an Uncle Tom.

Manase was on the ZC board since 2006. He became vice-chairman in 2011 and interim chairman in July 2014. How is it that all of a sudden Manase was never part of the decision-making process for all this time he was on the ZC board? How does he, all of a sudden, become dissociated with all the decisions of the previous boards?

The only reason why Manase would be a good chairman is that he took orders from Coltart. For example, soon after his appointment as interim chairman of the ZC board he was given a four-point action plan by Coltart through a lengthy email which is in my possession.

The action plan started by firing Mangongo, then national team coach, before the World Cup. Manase worked as Coltart’s subordinate at Legal Resources Foundation and as his protégé he can only believe in him and no one else. If Coltart is sincere about fighting racism in ZC we would have expected to get a similar lengthy article from him responding to Vermeulen after he called black cricketers ‘apes’.

Queens Sports Club and Harare Sports Club immensely benefitted from hosting the 2003 World Cup but surprisingly the person who claims he stands for cricket vigorously fought for New Zealand, Australia and England not to come and play here citing human rights abuses as if denying the locals from watching cricket played here was not in itself an abuse of human rights.

The current board, which he points as racist and claims wants to destroy cricket, made the following proposals for appointments:

1 Trevor Gripper to be on the cricket committee and he turned down the offer.

2 Ray Price to be on the cricket committee and to be the Under-19 specialist bowling coach and he turned down the offer.

3 We have approached Whitestone primary school to give us representation on the development committee and the offer was turned down.

4 Ruzawi has declined to give us their coach for national Under-13.

5 St George’s declined for their school to serve on the development committee.

6 Gregory Lamb was offered the appointed Under-19 batting coach post and he has taken up the post.

It would appear that to Coltart the only thing that is deemed correct is when a black man appoints a white man. Racism is only racism when Coltart feels that a white man has been hard done.

He has been silent about Prosper Utseya and Vermeulen. Can Coltart become just an ordinary cricket fan like everyone else and stop being an administrator, coach and selector? He quotes many times that he has been advised — as who?

Coltart is at liberty to contest in any portfolio and become an administrator or apply for these jobs rather than make unjustified conclusions.

Tavengwa Mukhulani is the chairman of Zimbabwe Cricket board.

Zimbabwe Independent

By Herbert Moyo

“WHEN you are mad, mad like this, you don’t know it. Reality is what you see.When what you see shifts, departing from anyone else’s reality, it’s still reality to you,” — United States author Marya Hornbacher once wrote in Madness: A Bipolar Life.

Although Education minister Larazus Dokora is not mad in a clinical sense, his controversial policies are largely been as out of touch with reality — impractical and irrational.

How else can one explain the minister’s behaviour — he has consistently ignored advice to slow down and consult before making policy pronouncements? Most of his policy interventions are not only impractical, but have wreaked havoc on the country’s education system that had shown signs of recovering during the inclusive government era when David Coltart was at the helm of the ministry.

Dokora took over from Coltart credited with sourcing books and study material for pupils, as well giving the green light for teachers to receive incentives from parents and school development associations after government had failed to fulfil its contractual obligation of paying them decent salaries.

He was Coltart’s deputy during the Government of National Unity (2009-2013), but Dokora proverbially “learnt nothing” from the man he understudied. He appears to be following the path of his party colleague Aeneas Chigwedere, who had a disastrous stint as education minister. Chigwedere sought to impose his own version of Zimbabwean and African history on the curriculum and as if that was not enough, he infamously decreed that teachers should wear uniforms to work.

Chigwedere did not believe in consulting which resulted in him losing the confidence of academics.

The late University of Zimbabwe history professor, David Beach, often ridiculed Chigwedere saying he could not be taken seriously as a scholar as he eschewed internationally acceptable methods of academic inquiry relying instead on supposed visions from his ancestors.

President Robert Mugabe may have dumped him to the relative obscurity of his home province of Mashonaland East where he makes occasional headlines fighting for the lowly title of village headman, but Chigwedere’s spirit seems to have been reincarnated in the top echelons of government in the form of Dokora.

A fortnight ago, Dokora announced that government would soon be introducing a number of foreign languages, including one of Africa’s widely spoken indigenous languages, Zulu at primary school level.

This followed his announcement in May that Chinese will be made a compulsory subject alongside Portuguese, Swahili and French.

“Our primary and secondary education will now have greater emphasis on the teaching of … major languages used in the country, and in Africa like Portuguese, Swahili and Zulu,” he said.

On the face of it, there seems to be wisdom in the introduction of Chinese given the fact that Mandarin is on course to become one of the dominant language and cultural forces in the 21st Century. The Asian country is poised to overtake the United States as the world’s dominant economy in decades ahead. It is also crucial that the main Chinese dialect, Mandarin, is spoken by a billion people, hence demand for businesspeople who speak Chinese is skyrocketing.

However, Dokora’s decision is bereft of practical steps to ensure successful implementation. He could have taken a leaf from the South African government which will also be introducing Mandarin in 2016 albeit as an optional rather than compulsory subject.

According to Nonhlanhla Nduna-Watson, director for curriculum policy in South Africa’s basic education department, the Chinese embassy in Pretoria will be “responsible for making sure that teachers that will be teaching Mandarin come from China”.

She said the Chinese government will shoulder the responsibility because Mandarin was being introduced at the request of their embassy while the South African government only obliged after an application process was duly followed.

“What is going to happen is that they (Chinese government) will be sending about 100 volunteers but (will) also train our own teachers who are interested in teaching Mandarin,” said Nduna-Watson last month.

She added that 100 South African teachers will travel to China each year for the next five years for training.

But such well-thought out plans of implementing policy decisions would be an unnecessary encumbrance to Dokora whose real interest seems to be self-serving rhetoric and posturing for political expediency.

Instead of explaining how the teaching of the languages will be implemented, Dokora shocked Zimbabweans by adding Zulu to the list.

Many Zimbabweans are questioning what he is seeking to achieve by adding Zulu to the list when Zimbabwe already has Ndebele which is closely related to the language. Zimbabwean Ndebele is a Zulu derivative or one of the Nguni dialects which include Xhosa, Swati, South African Ndebele, Mfengu, Thembu, Bhaca, Phuthi, Lala, Nhlangwini and Zulu itself. Ndebele and Zulu orthography are largely the same, hence mutual intelligibility. Ironically, Dokora presides over a ministry that has made no attempt to ensure that Ndebele, Shona and other national languages are taught and understood across the country.

The introduction of Portuguese and Swahili are also hard to fathom.

Given that business and career interests often provide the main motivation for learning a foreign language, the compulsory introduction of Portuguese and Swahili cannot be justified.

There are only two Lusophone countries in Southern Africa — Angola and Mozambique. Dokora appears blissfully ignorant of the fact that Mozambique, which long considered Portuguese to be an obstacle to its development, actually joined the Commonwealth of Anglophone countries in 1995 and has been trying its best to ensure English becomes the language of business.

On the other hand, Swahili is merely a regional lingua franca of East Africa where, in any case, English is widely spoken.

How pupils are supposed to cope with Dokora’s language medley that includes English and local languages, is a mystery

Nonetheless, the language issue is just one of many aspects of Dokora’s policy roller-coaster which has been moving at breakneck speed leaving behind a trail of demotivated teachers and students struggling to cope with his demands.
Among his controversial policy announcements is his desire for Ordinary level pupils to undertake industrial attachment. Ironically, tertiary students are struggling to do the same in the ever-diminishing space of company closures and job losses.

He has banned extra lessons, teachers’ incentives and Form 1 entrance tests. Hot-seating has been prescribed for former Group A schools while the ministry wants to allow condoms in schools.

Dokora is also planning to introduce a tax for Cambridge exam pupils arguing the examinations are a luxury.

He has been jumping from one policy pronouncement to another without any discernable plan of implementation and like the proverbial hyena that tried to walk on numerous paths at the same time — disaster appears to be the final destination.

According to Takavafira Zhou, president of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, Dokora is behaving like a trigger-happy minister bent on impressing Mugabe with policy pronouncements which are not feasible and made without consultation.

“How can policies be crafted and we only read of them in the newspapers when we are actually important stakeholders,” said Zhou. “We don’t even have competent teachers for Portuguese, Swahili, Zulu and French which we are rushing to introduce before even introducing local languages which include Tonga, Tswana, Venda, Sotho Kalanga and Nambya.”

Zhou also said Dokora’s priorities were misplaced as he had moved to introduce foreign languages as well as requirements for ‘O’ level students to obtain driver’s licences.

“Focus should be on major challenges including motivating teachers and resolving the low teacher-pupil ratio instead of ensuring pupils get driver’s licences. Whose cars will they drive when even teachers have no cars? Where exactly will these subjects fit into an already overloaded curriculum,” Zhou queried.

New Zimbabwe.com

October 16 2015

ZIMBABWE cricket player with a history of disciplinary problems is being investigated for making a racial slur on social media where he referred to black people as “apes.”
Zimbabwe Cricket said it is looking into comments posted on Facebook by batsman Mark Vermeulen.

Vermeulen was responding to a complaint made by black player Prosper Utseya alleging racism in Zimbabwe cricket.

In the post made back in July, Vermeulen wrote that black people wouldn’t have any problems “if we had left them in the bush,” and Utseya might be happier if he was living “in his mud hut.” He referred to black people as “the apes.”

Vermeulen, who has played nine tests and 43 one-day internationals but has been in and out of the team, could face a life ban in Zimbabwe after a series of previous problems.

In 2008, Vermeulen escaped a conviction for arson because of mental illness after setting fire to two Zimbabwe cricket buildings in 2006 in protest at being left out of the team.

The court found Vermeulen had been suffering from serious psychiatric problems since he was struck on the head by a ball while batting in a game in 2004.

Vermeulen was banned from playing in English league cricket for 10 years in 2011 for hurling the ball at a group of fans after they teased him.

He made his return to Zimbabwe’s test team last year after a 10-year absence but has fallen out of favour again.

On Friday, a local newspaper published what it said was an apology from Vermeulen.

In it, Vermeulen said that he had apologised personally to Utseya and had his apology accepted.

Vermeulen also wrote: “I know my comments were over the top and I apologise to all that I have offended. But as a cricketer, it’s how our minds work.”

The Vermeulen matter led to exchanges between former sports minister David Coltart and higher education minister Jonathan Moyo.

Moyo suggested that Vermeulen’s views were widely shared among the broader white community.

“My friend Jonathan was determined to involve me. Racist comments like this are disgusting and retrogressive and need to be condemned,” tweeted Coltart.

“The danger is that some will try to argue that this represents the views of most whites (of) which it doesn’t. Most are appalled by it.”

Radio VOP

By Sij Ncube

HARARE, October 14, 2015 – PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe’s government has intimated it wants to make mandatory the teaching of foreign languages at all primary schools in Zimbabwe but analysts say the ambitious strategy fails to appreciate the country is failing to enforce the teaching of Shona and Ndebele nationwide.

The targeted foreign languages include Swahili, Zulu, Portuguese, among others.

But critics note that Shona and Ndebele languages are the country’s two major indigenous languages yet both are hardly taught outside Mashonaland and Matabeleland provinces.

In Harare and Bulawayo for instance, there are a handful of primary schools that offer both languages but both languages are not mandatory at most schools.

Linguists and educationists canvassed by Radio VOP point out that very little has been done to fully recognise the 16 official languages enshrined in the constitution, describing the government’s proposal to teach Swahili, Zulu, Portuguese as “a hare-brained after thought coming from a government beret of constructive ideas.”

Former education minister, David Coltart, said Zimbabwe children should be able to “read, write and speak their mother tongue and English, plus ideally one other indigenous language. “Why teach all these foreign languages when most children cannot even speak other indigenous languages,” asked Coltart.

Chofamba Sithole, a former journalist now turned academic, wondered how the government dreamt up the proposals when “we hardly teach Ndebele and Shona to all our kids. Should we start there?

Sithole said it would be impossible for the country to unlock its national culture’s intellectual heritance with no language keys to do so.

Bekithemba Mhlanga, a former journalist and scholar, described the idea to teach foreign languages at the expense of local indigenous ones as crazy. “It shows lack of strategic insight. If they cannot meet current educational needs how will this be delivered or funded? Of late authorities in Zimbabwe have been behaving as if there is some weekly stupidity contest to be won,” said Mhlanga.

“Just last week one legislator called for the establishment of chieftainships in cities and times,” he said in reference to Makokoba’s legislator Tshinga Dube’s proposals that chiefs should be installed in towns.
Educationist Takavafira Zhou added his voice to the issue, saying the proposal is as unfortunate as it is ill-conceived.

“Why the government wants to teach foreign languages when we have several local languages that are not taught in the country remains a mystery,” said Zhou. He pointed out that several local languages such as Chewa, Chibarwe, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa have not gained a foothold in Zimbabwean schools yet officials are busy thinking of introducing foreign languages.
“It only shows how officials have lost touch with reality and happenings in schools so much that they want to impose what they dream as important in schools. What we need most is a language policy that can ensure that various local languages are offered in an area with students being given a choice to choose a local language from three local languages.

At any rate research has shown that up to the age of ten pupils learn best in their local languages. The greatest problem with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is that they think intelligence only exist at their head office. Sadly, the Ministry suffers from self-pollination with the consequent warped up policies. The earlier the education officials learn to consult widely, the better for our education system,” said Zhou.