Teachers’ promotions excite educationists
Education experts have supported the Ministry of Education’s recruitment and promotion of teachers, but have said priority in the allocation should go to districts with acute shortage.
The ministry announced the recruitment and promotion of 9 753 secondary teachers. Out of this number, 2 681 have been recruited while 3 997 have been promoted to senior teachers or heads of department in Grade TH.
Government has also promoted 316 teachers as heads of department in Grade TG and 500 have been promoted to head teachers also in Grade TG.
Reads in part the statement signed by Ministry of Education Principal Secretary Chikondano Musa: “The names of the 9 753 successful candidates can be accessed at the ministry’s website and various education divisions and district education”.
In an interview on Tuesday, educationist Steve Sharra also hailed the move, but called on the ministry to prioritise recruiting teachers for important subjects that have severe teacher shortages, such as the sciences, technical and vocational subjects.
“These subjects are pivotal to the 2030 and 2063 goals of agricultural production and commercialisation, industrialisation, and urbanisation, as well as tourism and mining,” he said.
On his part, education expert Limbani Nsapato said some teachers have served for as long as 15 years without a promotion, adding this development motivates them.
Ministry of Education spokesperson Mphatso Nkuonera said with this development, the secondary school section has now increased the number of teachers to over 20 000 from slightly over 16 000.
“This means government has narrowed down the teacher to learner ratio, and we are now getting closer to the recommended 1 teacher to 40 learners. We may not have achieved that yet but we are going that direction,” he said.
In the press statement issued on Monday, the ministry promoted 2 259 teachers at Grade TI and TJ, 3 997 teachers have been promoted as senior teachers and heads of department (Grade TH), 316 teachers earned promotion heads of department (Grade TG) and 500 as head teachers (Grade TG).
