Navigating peculiar, taxing circumstances

Tshwarelo Hosia | Monday July 13, 2026 06:00

The challenges that the rural- urban divide presents are enormous. Let us begin with the adequacy or otherwise of teacher training. Teacher training and preparation make no geographical distinctions. This might be an omission. The training of teachers assumes all teachers are versatile enough to answer the call when asked to serve wherever their services are needed most.

There is an iota of truth here but the assumption is wanting. Not all teachers find rural service appealing. This is good feedback, which teacher training institutions should exploit to rethink strategy and approach. Teacher producing institutions should beef up their package to include courses on the demands and challenges of rural service.

The country is overwhelmingly rural and producing teachers who are not mentally ready to serve in the villages is an exercise in futility. Schools in the villages continue to be under served as teachers continue to compete for limited posts in the cities and contest rural appointments.

The system often struggles to fill rural vacancies timeously. The school system on the ground is choking because rural deployments are often met with resistance. It takes a bit of persuasion and coercion for a teacher to leave town to accept deployment in the rural areas. Even promotion does not seem to be a sufficient motivation to encourage people to take up appointments in the villages.

There is always some pocket of resistance which in the process undermines the quality of education that children born and raised in poverty deserve. There is an urgent need to highlight the rights of children born and raised in poverty to a rock solid and strong education foundation. The rural folks have become our cinderella, sitting on the margins of development for decades.

The story of neglect should be reversed urgently. It is important to reverse urbanisation. Rural developments should assume a number priority. Sending the best trained and ablest teachers to the rural areas is one way of beginning a process of addressing inequalities and building a strong foundation for a more egalitarian society.

The rural folks deserve better. They are not second class citizens. Children living in poverty deserve the best educational services this country can afford to offer. Yet, the irony of the situation is that children in the rural areas who deserve the most get the least. The challenge of educational inequalities remains real rather than imagined. A lot of work remains to be done to level the playing field and close the rural - urban divide.

The training of teachers should be anchored on the why. The purpose for which teachers are trained should be clearly defined. The teaching profession is designed to address inequalities and place all children on the same pedestal regardless of their socio - economic backgrounds.

At the preparation level, deliberate efforts should be made to equip teachers with knowledge, skills and the mental strength needed for national duty in the most difficult parts of our country.

Emphasis should be on the need to eliminate poverty and other social ills bedevilling our society. National duty in the rural areas should be regarded as an honourable and noble mission.

Presently rural deployments are stigmatised because they are considered a curse or a chastisement. The system has a tendency of deploying to the rural areas those who are considered rebellious and uncooperative. This alone stigmatises rural service.

If the system is aiming for impact it should make rural service attractive to the best minds and hard working people. The mind set should change to embrace deployment in the villages as the first step towards building a more equal society. Teachers should lead the battle against inequalities and deprivation.

However, more needs to be done to make rural service more honourable and appealing. Delivering quality education amidst shortages of infrastructure and teachers in the rural areas can be a daunting task.

This is, however, not insurmountable. First the teachers are capable of delivering world class education service in any corner of the country.

They can do wonders when they identify with the bigger purpose of eradicating poverty and closing the rural - urban divide. But they need a bit of support to carry out their duties with distinction. A shift in development policy giving primacy and bias to rural areas should be implemented.

A policy of rural areas first would change the narrative and make rural areas attractive .Schools should become community hubs with reliable water, internet and other state of the art infrastructure.

Schools in the villages should have excellent sports facilities for talent development and management. Teachers who are loyal to rural service should receive accelerated promotions while also enjoying top notch housing.

To further promote stability and retention of staff the system could recruit locals who are more likely to stay longer in the villages. This would address the challenge of high staff turnover which presently plague rural schools. The system can redeem itself by making rural service special and appealing.

More teachers should voluntarily enrol for rural service when the conditions of service in the villages are improved.