Story by Farai Gwaze
The Teaching Professional Council Bill is now ready to be taken to Parliament, with government satisfied with efforts to establish a regulatory framework that promotes high morals, ethical behavior and professional standards among teaching practitioners.
“We are very pleased that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has a draft Teaching Profession Council Bill, which we concluded with various stakeholders. Amongst them, teachers’ unions, other government arms, and the ministry itself were involved in drafting this bill. This bill is there to ensure that it restores the dignity of the teaching profession. Teachers are going to be registered and benefit a lot from this bill, because no school will be allowed to engage a person as a teacher who is not a member of the teaching profession council, amongst a lot of other benefits that may also include conditions of service, registration and a host of other things that benefit the teaching profession,” said Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Director of Communications and Advocacy, Mr Taungana Ndoro.
ZIMTA Chief Executive Officer, Dr Sifiso Ndlovu believes the Teaching Professional Council of Zimbabwe, which will be established by the law, will drive excellence in the education sector.
“The aim of this is to uplift the standards of teaching in the country and guarantee the service receivers a quality delivery of services by teachers and the government of Zimbabwe. We are looking then at how we can promote the professionalization of teaching, by ensuring continuous professional development, and by also ensuring that there is self-regulation where teachers can have control of their own profession, and destiny and be certain that their welfare will be uplifted,” he explained.
Government is seized with aligning various legislation to the constitution and drafting new laws and policies in line with the vision of an upper-middle-income society by 2030.
