The Teachers Union of Malawi (TUM) says it wants to scrutinise the list of 3 800 teachers who will be promoted on the basis of experience as it doesn’t want undeserving ones to be elevated.
TUM’s demand comes at a time some teachers, particularly those who have served for a long time, last week threatened to go on strike for being left out in the recent interviews that have seen 5 099 teachers getting promoted from PT4 to PT3 grade.
In reaction to the teachers’ threats, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Eunice Kazembe on Sunday said the ministry has created some 3 800 positions at PT3 grade to promote those who have served for a long time at PT4 grade.
In an interview on Monday, TUM general secretary Dennis Kalekeni accused the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of messing up teachers’ promotions which he said the union directly sought from President Joyce Banda early this year.
“At first, we reached a deadlock on the issue of promotions after several meetings with Ministry of Education officials because they told us that they had no positions in the establishment where to promote the teachers.
“But as a union, we succeeded to secure the promotions from the Head of State and the arrangement was to first target those teachers who have served for a long time,” said Kalekeni.
He said the union was surprised to learn that most of the 5 099 teachers promoted are those who have served for about four years when others have served for more than 20 years at the same grade.
“We don’t think the Ministry of Education can make a mistake of not involving TUM in the next 3 800 promotions. We want to see each and every promotion to ensure that only those who deserve to get the promotions get promoted.
“What the Teaching Service Commission needs to do is to rank all the teachers who have not been promoted according to the number of years they have been in service and take the first 3 800,” said Kalekeni.
He also said some teachers were promoted in 2009 and 2010, but are yet to receive letters of promotion.
On Sunday, Kazembe said the 5 099 teachers were promoted based on their interview performances, adding the ministry will continue promoting more teachers depending on the availability of resources.
She said the ministry also has 649 positions at Grade P8 for head teachers, 1 588 positions at Grade PT1 and 3 874 positions at Grade PT2. n
