Govt to recruit 2 300 teachers
GOVERNMENT has started recruiting 2 300 teachers ahead of opening day next week to enable full implementation of the new curriculum introduced by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, a Cabinet minister has said.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Prisca Mupfumira said the Public Service Commission (PSC) had started the process of recruiting teachers and was working on modalities and administrative issues.
Minister Mupfumira said they were looking forward to completing the recruitment process before schools opened, as Government moved to address the shortage of teachers.
“We have started the process of recruiting the 2 300 teachers before schools open for the second term,” she said.
“We are working on the modalities and administrative issues and we are looking forward to completing the process by Monday next week.”
Minister Mupfumira told The Herald last month that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education required more than 7 000 teachers urgently and these would be recruited in batches starting with the 2 300.
Minister Dokora is on record saying more teachers were needed immediately to enable full implementation of the new curriculum.
“We want about 7 000 teachers and we have since approached Cabinet so that PSC can fill in the vacant posts,” he said in an interview.
In January, Government temporarily shelved plans to recruit more teachers because of lack of funds.
This was after the PSC froze recruitment of civil servants last year as part of a staff rationalisation programme to cut the civil service wage bill, which takes close to 80 percent of the National Budget, but a special dispensation was given to critical posts.
Teacher representatives have said the continued delays in the recruitment of additional teachers put pressure on schools and this was a big threat to the implementation of the new curriculum.
New learning areas such as Mass Displays and Visual and Performing Arts need to be taught by skilled personnel who are not immediately available among the teaching staff complement, they observed.