Ministry to hire 4125 temporary teachers
The Ministry of Education has planned to hire 4125 temporary auxiliary teachers for one academic year to reduce the high teacher-to-learner ratio.
Secretary of Education Chikondano Mussa said in a statement on Monday that the auxiliary teachers will be drawn from the Initial Primary Teacher Education (IPTE) 13 and 14 cohorts.
She said upon hiring them, the teachers will be placed in various public primary schools across the 34 education districts.
Said Mussa: “The temporary contract period for this engagement is one academic year and is renewable subject to the availability of funding opportunities.”
Currently, the teacher-to-learner ratio is standing at 1:65 against the recommended 1:40.
Education policy advocates have since been faulting the government for failing to ensure that trained teachers are hired to reduce this high teacher-to-learner ratio.
According to Mussa, the willing auxiliary teachers are required to report to their respective work stations today.
She said failure to report at the respective work stations will lead to automatic withdrawal of the offer.
Mussa said a list of the IPTE 13 and 14 teachers and their workstations has since been sent to all district education offices, local councils and primary teacher training colleges.
In July, The Nation reported that the government has spent K117 billion on five cohorts to train 25 000 primary school and 7 000 secondary school teachers who are yet to be recruited.
Edukans country director Limbani Nsapato told The Nation edition of July 28 2022 that failure to recruit the already trained teachers was frustrating not only to the unemployed, but also to students aspiring to become teachers.
A primary school teacher’s basic salary is K176 000 while that of a secondary school teacher is K354 000.
Malawi has 77 929 primary school teachers and a deficit of over 62 000 teachers while secondary schools need over 40 000 new teachers.
