A study of the right of learners and teachers to quality public education in Zimbabwe
Every day, everywhere in the world, the right of learners and teachers to quality public education is violated (Dorsi, 2014). The quality of education is undermined by a deficit of appropriately qualified teachers more particularly in the rural areas. It has been observed that there has been moral decadence in contemporary society, and a marked decline in the character, moral values and general behaviour of students coming out of our school system. According to Mangena (2006), modern society has become increasingly more corrupt, lawless, violent, undisciplined and permissive, and that the trend is more apparent among the younger generation. There is, thus, an urgent need for the country to strive to provide quality public education and to ensure that the products coming out of schools have moral values and good ethical behaviour. Research studies by Sergiovanni and Starratt (2007) suggest that, among the major school-related factors that influence learner achievement, teachers matter most. Accordingly, the study sought to investigate issues of the right of learners and teachers to quality public education in Zimbabwe. The investigation employed the documentary research method, and used the secondary documentary sources to gather data. The findings revealed that every learner has a right to quality public education provided by quality teachers. The learners’ right to quality public education demands that teachers have a right to quality pre-service teacher education, moral education and in-service teacher education, and continuing professional education, financed by government. Quality education requires quality teachers who also have moral values and good ethical behaviour. The study recommended that government take practical measures to ensure that learners have access to quality education, quality schools staffed by appropriately-qualified school heads and teachers. Finally, a call was made to teacher unions to form a professional teachers’ council and establish a code of professional ethics.
The Right to Quality Education.
A well-educated citizenry .is vital to today's ad vanced, industrial society. Its continued advancement is measured, in fact, by the quality of the education its citizens enjoy, as quality education has become, in turn, the signal means by which a community can hope to realize the full potential of itself as well as its constituent members. In this context, the educa tional process obviously cannot be left to chance. As the educational needs of our society become in creasingly crucial to our total survival, specific policies must be established to guarantee their satisfaction within the parameters of a modern world. One such policy now emerging at both the national and state levels would make quality education a legal right. New Jersey, for example, has established legislation calling for "thorough and efficient education," and is beginning not only to equate "thorough" and "effi cient" with quality education, but also to make it a basic right protected by law. 1 The past several decades have given witness to various movements to establish the human rights of minorities and women. Having inched our way for ward to this front with calls for the "right to read," "the right to bilingual education," and "the right to education for the handicapped," we are now at the point of framing an educational rights package from birth to old age. It is now time to bring even more of these efforts into a total package into an encom passing right to quality education for all. Before this can be accomplished, however, two fundamental ques tions will have to be answered and resolved: (1) what is quality education, and (2) how can quality educa tion be delivered to each citizen?
Developing Quality Systems in Education
Educational institutions have not escaped the influence of the quality movement, and the FE sector in particular is now being actively encouraged to introduce the BSI's quality assurance standard BS5750. Universities and schools are also attracted by a standard which should improve, if not quality itself, then the management of quality. This book presents an overview of the pitfalls and problems of implementing quality standards in education. It explores theoretical issues, such as the relationship between the customer and academic culture. It also has a strong practical theme, looking at the advantages and disadvantages of quality systems, case studies of attempts at implementation and proposals for future developments across the education sector as a whole.