The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi
THERE is a trend in setting up new schools in and around towns that now leaves a lot to be desired. It started off as little cracks that grew into gorges, then into canyons and now into valleys. Desperate unemployed teachers join founders of private or independent schools.
After a couple of months or years they conspire against the owners of the schools, stab them in the back and run away with the children to establish their own schools. The leprosy has spread from ECD up to independent colleges and is a naked shame among those in the private or independent teaching trade.
Instead of appreciating, being grateful, for being allowed to teach at a time when circumstances were tough and prohibitive, you gain experience and skills in running such independent schools, but go on to stab your employer in the back and steal his or her children away with you to form a personal school. Hamunyariwo here fellow Zimbabweans kuvaka matendere enyu neminhenga yedzimweshiri? Ndikokunzi shiri dzakangwara nhai?
Surely how can a fellow Zimbabwean fish from some other fisherman’s catch? Vamwe vanoredza murwizi, iwe unoredza mudhishi remumwe mune hove dzake dzaakabata iwe wakarara! Where are our morals as people?
As if that was not enough, you first denounce your former employer by telling wicked lies about them…heresy if you like, and then fabricate horrible holier-than-thou tricks? What’s wrong with us Zimbabweans? Vanhu vakange vasvika pakuvora kusvika pakadaimu Zimbabwe nhai? So corrupt! So rotten?
Well, it’s easy. If the PED’s office is not aware of such schools that wake up with a sign-post inviting pupils or students to teach up to PhD behind the kitchen or toilet without registration licences, we will advise it to take appropriate measures without fear or favour. Munoitira vamwe hutsinye hwakadaro pedzezvo motyora mutemo to run or operate an unlicensed school? Mapedza moti tinodzidzisa Ubuntu /Hunhupachikoropedu…hamunyari?
There is nothing wrong with starting your own ECD or little school. In fact that is helping Government to provide education to Zimbabwean citizens. But do we need to kill other people, other participants, along the way?
That is exactly what is happening in a number of schools sprouting up all over the show in Mutare. Schools stolen from friends’ enrolments! Hamunyari? And parents you become part of these conspiracies and transfer your children from Heaven to Hell because the devil spoke more sweetly? Mind these sweet-talking snakes that convinced Eve to convince Adam to eat the prohibited fruit. It is that simple.
If this continues, as part of cleansing the nonsense, the corruption, we will soon name and shame these wicked back-biters and conspirators and ask the PED’s office to carry out a severe OPERATION WHERE IS YOUR LICENCE blitz and deal with them ruthlessly. Because they are ruthless themselves in the first place…and are illegal operators! Such schools are not assets in the development of education in Zimbabwe.
All schools must be registered so that proper monitoring and evaluation of standards can be done from the PED’s office. The PED does not service unlicensed independent schools. So what are you doing there without the hand of the PED and his office?
Observe legality, ethics and morality in the setting up of private schools. That is where Ubunthu / Hunhu begins. Charity begins at home!
