By OLIVER SAMBOKO
GOVERNMENT should consider increasing the number of teachers it plans to recruit this year to ensure that the learners in public schools have enough tutors, National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ) Executive Director Aaron Chansa has said.
Mr Chansa said they find plans by the Ministry of General Education and the Teaching Service Commission to recruit only 1, 200 teachers be too insignificant, insensitive and a clear recipe for social confusion.
He said failing to recruit new teachers for the past two years and having more than 60, 000 trained but unemployed teachers, his organisations expected Government to recruit more than 6, 000 teachers this year.
Mr Chansa said currently, the country has a national shortage of more than 45, 000 teachers.
“If this recruitment of 1, 200 teachers will go ahead as announced by the Minister, we fear that the undertaking will attract corruption, nepotism and other unconventional recruitment methods, and as an organisations, we feel this can be avoided by increasing the number of teachers to be employed,” he said.
He said from the observation, NAQEZ foresee, that the recruitment exercise was likely to cause a social stampede among thousands of agonising unemployed teachers and therefore there is need for the Ministry of General Education to increase the number of teachers to be employed.
“We have information that some of these trained teachers are even about to reach the age that would make them unemployable in Government.
Mr Chansa appealed to Government through the Ministry of Finance to increase funding for the exercise to enable the country have quality education and spur national development.
