Zambia’s planned aptitude tests for teachers slammed as ‘pedestrian solution’

LUSAKA: Stakeholders in Zambia have received a call by authorities to introduce aptitude testing of teachers to be recruited this year.

Stanley Mhango, chairperson of the Teaching Service Commission, a government entity regulating the teaching profession, said recently that applicants for the 2018 teacher recruitment will be required to sit for aptitude tests.

He said the tests will be conducted in various districts to ensure only competent teachers were recruited. The Commission said the move was not meant to demean teachers but to improve standards and the quality of education.

The move, he said, follows complaints from some school authorities over the calibre of some teachers deployed to various schools.

But the move, the first of its kind in teacher recruitment in the country, has received mixed reactions from stakeholders.

The Zambia Council for Social Development said it was a confirmation that the government had not been paying attention to provision of quality education throughout the system.

Lewis Mwape, executive director of the organisation, said reports of failure by some recruited teachers to perform was a systemic failure by education authorities in the country to deliver quality education, and introducing aptitude tests was “a pedestrian manner of dealing with the problem”.

“The revelation of the Teaching Service Commission must be taken seriously as it raises not just the question of quality of teacher training but also underpins the systemic failure of the entire education system,” he said.

The government, he said, should increase funding to the education sector and ensure that the Ministry of General Education allocates more resources to the Directorate of Standards within the ministry in order to deal with education quality outcomes.

“We are also of the view that the resources for aptitude testing would better be invested into providing text books and other education materials to schools who are currently struggling with teaching and learning materials due to poor funding at school level,” he said.

The Zambia National Union of Teachers also believes there is need to review the education structure to identify the real problem.

Newman Bubala, the union’s secretary general, said there were many loopholes in the recruitment process.