Treasury gives nod to teacher recruitment

02 Jul, 2017 - 02:07 0 Views
Treasury gives nod to teacher recruitment Minister Prisca Mupfumira

The Sunday News

Prisca Mupfumira

Prisca Mupfumira

Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
THE Treasury has given the Civil Service Commission the green light to recruit additional teachers to fill 2 000 posts that were declared vacant in the education sector.

The Government announced in May this year that it would recruit 2 300 teachers before the start of the schools second term although the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education had requested for more than 7 000.

Schools opened for the second term on 9 March but the recruitment had been stalled by “a few administrative issues” that needed to be ironed out.

In an interview on Friday, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Cde Prisca Mupfumira said her Ministry has since communicated the developments to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.

“We have agreed with the Ministry of Finance and we have since written to them (Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education), giving them authority to start the process. We hope they can start the process immediately,” she said.

Cde Mupfumira said after issuance of the Treasury concurrence on the recruitment process what was now left was for the Civil Service Commission with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to liaise with the education ministry on recruitment. The CSC is in charge of recruitment and deployment of teachers while the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education supervises the work of educators.

“Recruitment will be done jointly and they (Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and CSC) have to liaise. The Ministry knows the areas they want teachers and that will guide the recruitment,” she said.

The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education had requested the 7 000 teachers to be recruited to enable full implementation of the new education curriculum. Efforts to get comment from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango were fruitless.

Teachers unions have been on record applauding the Government to heeding the call to recruit more teachers.

The teachers’ unions have argued that the shortage of teachers was compromising the quality of education as the few teachers taking charge of classes were being overworked. Thousands of teachers who graduated from various teacher training institution are jobless after the Government halted recruitment of civil servants as it seeks to cut a huge wage bill. Some of the unemployed teachers have fallen prey to hoax job offers in foreign countries that circulate on social media.

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