Probe teacher recruitment-ZANEC

THE Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) has called for an urgent and extensive investigation in the recruitment of teachers with fake documents to ascertain the exact magnitude of the problem.

ZANEC executive director Grace Sinkamba has since urged the government through the Ministry of General Education to give full support to the Teachers Council of Zambia (TCZ) if its functions of ensuring quality education provision was to be realised and subsequently sustained.

Ms Sinkamba said ZANEC was shocked by the revelations that over 500 teachers across Zambia had forged academic qualifications.

She said the provision of quality education was one of the cornerstones of the education sector and having teachers possessing credentials that lacked credibility should not be tolerated.

“As a key stakeholder comprising 68 different educational sector-oriented nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Zambia, ZANEC emphasises the need for having constant and tight quality controls in the delivery of education both at primary and tertiary levels,” Ms Sinkamba said.

Ms Sinkamba said the revelation by TCZ should not just be a matter of dismissal from employment of the affected teachers, but should also be a good opportunity for relevant authorities to put in place tangible mechanism to prevent unqualified people from entering the teaching profession.

She said the proposed mechanism should be able to detect forged results at the point of entry into teacher training colleges.

Ms Sinkamba said it was equally regrettable that some teachers had worked for many years before their alleged forged qualifications were detected, adding Zambians did not want to have a compromised and doubted education.

Ms Sinkamba explained that the introduction of authorities such as the TCZ had been supported by ZANEC from inception and such revelations on the existence of over 500 teachers with forged qualifications indicated the positive work that the body was doing.

She charged that the consequences of obtaining or forged academic or professional qualifications were grave and painted a bad image on the affected individuals and indeed the education system in Zambia.