Press Release

Matabeleland Education Departments Owe the Region an Apology and Explanation

Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) is disappointed by the performance of Matabeleland schools in last year’s Ordinary and Advanced level examinations and believes that the education departments in the region are answerable for the poor display. According to rankings by the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council (ZIMSEC) for the November 2011 examinations, no school in Matabeleland made it into the top 10 in the Advanced level category while only five schools from the three regions made it into the top 50 in the Ordinary level category. Worse still, three schools from Matabeleland, namely Plumtree, Evelyn and Gifford were in the bottom 10 in the Advanced  level category.

BPRA believes that provincial education officers and headmasters in the region should apologise to parents for the poor performance and explain why Matabeleland is failing to match the performance of other regions in the country. The reasons for the poor performance should be given so that remedial action can be taken to address the problem. It is unacceptable for schools to be performing badly when parents are spending scarce resources on school fees and subsidizing teachers’ salaries through incentives.

While acknowledging that schools in the Matabeleland region are not as developed as other schools in the country especially in the areas of science and technology due to years of marginalization and under development, BPRA believes that performance can be enhanced if the regional office plays its part. In that vein, BPRA lays the blame for the poor performance by schools in the region squarely on the provincial education departments and calls upon them to make concerted efforts to improve education standards so that Matabeleland schools improve their rankings. The poor performance by Matabeleland schools means that children from the region cannot compete for places at University as their counterparts from other regions are better qualified than they are. This is a tragedy for the region as it is likely to continue lagging behind in terms of development as education is key to sustainable development.

           

Signed

Mr Rodrick Fayayo

Coordinator

Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA)