Minister calls on Parliament to support education sector

M

inister of Education Agnes NyaLonje has called on members of Parliament (MPs) to help resolve challenges affecting the education sector.

She made the appeal on Tuesday in Parliament when she responded to a question from Mulanje South West MP George Chaponda who asked when government will employ the 6 900 permanent teachers it promised.

Chaponda said there are many trained teachers who were promised jobs but are yet to be recruited.

“Having auxiliary teachers is leading to frustrations that are in turn affecting standards of education,” he said.

In response, NyaLonje said government is looking for resources to ensure that more teachers are employed.

She said resources have for a long time been a challenge in the education sector and that has seen different administrations failing to implement things.

“MPs should join forces. The resources for education are far outstretched by the demand. It is my plea to this House that instead of politicking around education, we should come together as leaders to acknowledge that we must look at how we enlarge the national cake instead of looking for the biggest knife to cut the smallest national cake and see who runs away with the biggest part of the small national cake,” said NyaLonje.

But when Chaponda sought clarification on when the teachers will be employed as promised, she said the 2022/23 financial year has not ended.

Meanwhile, Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Kondowe has said government has no clear strategy to address the issue of recruiting teachers.

In an interview yesterday, the education rights activist said the 6 900 teachers could have been employed by now but there is no provision for teachers recruitment in the 2022/23 National Budget.

“They talk of recruitment but delivering is a problem. The problem is that government relies on donors to address the issue of recruitment. There is a programme to hire 3 500 auxiliary teachers for one year but after one year, what will happen? Does it mean we will not need teachers,” said Kondowe.

In the 2021/22 financial year, government recruited 2 200 primary school teachers and engaged 3 270 auxiliary teachers to address the shortage of teachers in schools.

Earlier this year, government promised to recruit 6 900 permanent teachers and engage over 3 000 auxiliary teachers.