Institution Overview
Morgenster Teachers College is under the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe. It is the oldest teachers college in Zimbabwe which started in 1902. The institution was initiated by the Dutch Reformed Church Missionaries.
Background
The college is part of the education work of the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (DRC) from 1981 onwards.
At the time, anybody literate was encouraged to teach others how to read and write. So such literate
converts were among the first ‘teachers ’within the R.CZ. As more primary schools were opened as outposts
in the rural areas, the need for properly trained teachers was felt and so efforts were made to put a teacher-education
programme which was short-lived and yet another attempt was made in 1905 – 1906. Both attempts were
struggling affairs as they were confronted by manpower shortages.
The watershed or breakthrough was made when the Rev. H.W. Murry, a B.A. a man with a teachers’ qualification
arrived and was put in charge of the teacher – training programme and put it on a sound footing until
leadership passed onto others equally strong personalities. Beside the pupil/teacher programme, Morgenster
Teachers College tortuously participated in all the subsequent programmes such as Elementary Teachers’ Certificate,
Vernacular Certificate, Primary Teachers’ Lower Certificate and others. Today, it is only Morgenster that can
boast of having participated in every teacher-education programme that has ever been mounted in Zimbabwe. 1970
was another crucial stage when the R.C.Z and other Missionary societies were made to surrender their primary schools
to local councils. At that point, the church would have easily lost interest in further participation in
teacher-education, but at its meeting in 1970, the Education Secretary, T.H. Barnard strongly recommended
continued participation for he saw it as an opportunity to produce teachers who would exert Christian influence
wherever they taught. The recommendation was accepted and so Morgenster continues with the work it started in 1902.