Nearly 140 set to graduate at Hwange Teachers College.

Hwange Teachers College is set to send off its pioneer 140 graduates next week in a ceremony that
will see the Nambya and Tonga languages being taught in schools by people from the area.
The graduation ceremony is the first since the college opened in 2019 and the event will be
officiated by the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education Innovative, Science and Development
Professor Amon Murwira.

In an Interview, Royal Ntini, the Vice Chancellor of Hwange Teachers College, said the college is one
of the success projects of the Second Republic under the leadership of President Emmerson
Mnangagwa .

“The government has a policy which says in every province there should be a college and a tertiary
institution and one of the critical issues which is addressed by the college is the issue of promoting
indigenous languages”
“We needed a college which was capable of addressing and producing teachers who will be
professionally teaching Nambya, Tonga and other indigenous languages for Hwange and Binga
communities. As we speak Hwange communities have Nambya Teachers, Binga communities have
Tonga Teachers.”

He said the establishment of the Hwange Teachers College has been changing local communities.
“Communities have been changed, all along people would travel to Bulawayo for teacher’s training.
There is a large number of students coming from Binga which means the community is empowered.
The communities feel that the college is theirs and there is so much excitement in the community,”
said Ntini.

The visionary of the Second Republic had also led to Hwange Local board setting aside 17ha of land
for the construction of the Hwange Teachers College which is a satellite college for United College of
Education in Bulawayo.

Despite being the new kid in the block the college has managed to produce a 100 percent pass rate
from the pioneer graduates.

“We are very happy with the first crop because they were very dedicated students. We may be a
small college but when it comes to quality we are comparable to any other college,” said Ntini.
The college is a former infant school and the buildings were not conducive for tertiary students
hence the setting aside of 17ha by Hwange local board to construct an appropriate institution.

“The learning space is not conducive for tertiary students, the campus was an annex for a primary
school, to be precise the buildings accommodated infants thus making it difficult for adults,” said
Ntini.

Hwange has historically relied on instructors trained at Bulawayo’s United College of Education and
Hillside Teachers’ College, as well as Gwanda’s Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Polytechnic College, since
independence. The coming of Hwange Teachers College has brought development in Hwange
district.