College graduates 98 teachers, urges govt to recruit them

Mzimba-based Alma Private Teacher Training College on Sunday graduated 98 teachers under the initial primary teacher education (Ipte) cohort 17 with a call to government to recruit them.

Speaking during the event, the college’s principal Ken Bilima urged government to provide enough resources to the Ministry of Education to recruit all trained primary school teachers.

In the K3.7 trillion 2023-24 National Budget, government has allocated K603.36 billion to the education and skills development sector, with K8.9 billion earnmarked for recruitment of both primary and secondary schools teachers.

But Bilima said the K8.9 billion is not enough to recruit all trained teachers under Ipte 14, 15, 16 and 17.

“I wonder why there should be shortage of teachers in our primary schools in the country when thousands of trained teachers are not fully employed and now we are graduating the Ipte 17 cohort,” he said.

Bilima said it is not right for institutions to continue training more teachers when government cannot employ them.

M’Mbelwa District Council director of education, youth and sports Fidesi Msoyowa in an interview said Mzimba,  just like any other district, has a high vacancy rate of teachers.

She said: “Mzimba is also affected with shortage of teachers. We are far from achieving the recommended one teacher to 60 learners ratio.

“However, government is aware of this problem and recruitment of teachers is an ongoing process which will be done.”

Speaking on behalf of graduands, Angella Chikalamba from Mchinji District, said they have received the best training and expect government to recruit them.

Due to shortage of  finances, government of late has been engaging teachers on auxiliary basis rather than employing them permanently.