Teachers urged to plan on entrepreneurship

South West Education Division (Swed) inspector of schools Christopher Ziwa has urged teachers to plan when engaging in their business to avoid affecting delivery of lessons to learners.

He made the remarks on Wednesday at Development Aid from People to People (Dapp) Chilangoma Teacher Training College (TTC) during the graduation of 70 teachers under Initial Primary Teacher Education Programme in Chileka, Blantyre.

In his speech, Ziwa said teachers should not conduct businesses at the expense of teaching.

“You are teachers first and the entrepreneurship skill was just an additional course to help you sustain finances. You have to manage time properly to ensure pupils are not denied the right to education when pursuing businesses in and outside school premises,” he said.

In his remarks, Dapp Chilangoma TTC deputy principal Martin Mitengo said they produce teachers that are multi-tasked.

“They [the teachers] solve challenges of shortage of learning materials in public schools by improvising tools and discharging their duties using locally available resources. With the food and nutrition course, they introduce to communities local health foods through pupils,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the graduates, Godfrey Kandikana promised that they will uphold ethics of the profession to improve education standards in the division.

Since 2003, the college has produced 1 015 teachers working in rural public primary schools and communities in the division. n