By Pemphero Malimba:
Representatives of unemployed primary school teachers have bemoaned the government’s apparent lack of interest in their concerns.
Last month, the teachers delivered a petition to Parliament.
In it, they asked Ministry of Education’s Director of Basic Education, Principal Secretary for Local Government, Unity and Culture and Secretary to the Treasury, among others, to organise a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss some of their concerns.
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In the petition, the teachers wanted the stakeholders to come up with a lasting solution to their unemployment problem and cases of alleged irregularities in the recruitment of primary school teachers by district councils, among other things.
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The teachers then gave the authorities a 10-working day ultimatum to organise the meeting, which elapsed on May 31 2024.
National spokesperson for the unemployed teachers Cornelius Mwalure said they are saddened to see that, so far, government has not reached out to them on the matter.
“We are in disbelief to see that government is silent on this matter because we showed our interest in embarking on contact and dialogue so that our issues could be addressed amicably but staying silent on this matter makes us wonder as to whether we have ministries that have the interest of teachers at heart or not,” he said.
He said they hoped that their concerns would be addressed to help prevent future challenges in the recruitment process.
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“We expected the government to come out clearly and shed light on the issue, in terms of when exactly they are going to start the recruitment exercise and address the challenges we presented to them in the petition,” he said.
On his part, Ministry of Education spokesperson Mphatso Nkuonera said the ministry would respond to the concerned people at an appropriate time.
“We are going to respond to them [the teachers] when everything is done. At the moment, we are still consulting,” Nkuonera said.
His Local Government counterpart Anjoya Mwanza asked for ample time before she could comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, quality education advocate Wesley Mwambakulu has urged the government to schedule a meeting with the teachers.
“I believe that a stakeholders’ meeting on this issue can help in bringing up long and short-term solutions to the issue,” Mwambakulu said.
There are at least 13,000 unemployed primary school teachers from IPTE 14,15,16 and 17 in the country.
