By Tiyese Monjeza:
The Ministry of Education has announced plans to recruit 4,200 auxiliary teachers from Initial Primary Teacher Education (IPTE) cohorts.
It says the teachers will be deployed to primary schools across the country.
According to a press release signed by secretary for education Ken Ndala, the auxiliary teachers will be engaged through the Malawi Education Reform Project (MERP) on temporary basis in the 2025-26 academic year.
The IPTE teachers who successfully completed their training and are willing to take up this temporary teaching position are expected to report at their respective work stations on November 10, 2025. Failure to report by November 17 will lead to automatic withdrawal of the offer engagement,” the statement reads.
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“The statement further indicates that the auxiliary teachers will be receiving monthly honorarium of K150,000 monthly.
“The temporary engagement of auxiliary teachers form part of efforts by government to reduce pupil: qualified teacher ratio across the country,” Ndala says.
Meanwhile, education rights advocate Ceasar Kondowe has said the move will contribute to the provision of quality services in the education sector.
He added that the ministry should ensure that the auxiliary teachers are sent to rural schools, where there are low number of teachers.
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“My expectation is that these teachers will be sent to schools that are in hard-to-reach areas. The teachers should also ensure that they are professional,” Kondowe said.
Meanwhile, Blantyre Teachers College IPTE 18 Students Union President Chancy Enala Manda has said the ministry should consider increasing the number of auxiliary teachers hired under the initiative.
“There are over 7,000 IPTE 18 teachers from government and private colleges who completed their studies in April [this year] and are yet to be employed. So, 4,200 is not enough as others will still be left out,” Manda said.
She further called on the ministry to be clear on whether the arrangement to hire auxiliary teachers means that IPTE 18 teachers who attended mass recruitment interviews will no longer be considered for full primary school teacher recruitment.
“When we attended interviews, the ministry said some of the IPTE 18 teachers who succeeded would be notified once the Malawi National Examinations Board (MANEB) releases our certificates.
“As we are pushing for the release of our certificates for job consideration on interviews we did, we are surprised that the government is now intending to recruit auxiliary teachers,” Manda said.
In September last year, the government recruited around 20,000 primary teachers.
