Education Minister Hon. Douglas Syakalima has announced the
completion of the 2023 teacher recruitment exercise and that names of
successful applicants will be published in the press tomorrow Friday, 26th
January 2024.
Hon. Syakalima has further revealed that instead of the 4,500
teachers budgeted for in 2023, government has instead recruited an additional
2,721 bringing the number to 7,221 members of staff.
The Minister said the 2,721 positions was created by the
Ministry mapping up all retirees, those who resigned, went on secondment and
unpaid leave or dismissed from service to create replacement positions.
Hon. Syakalima said his Ministry did this inorder to respond to
the overwhelming 69,311 applicants received in 2023.
The Minister said this when he addressed a press briefing at his
office Thursday 25th January 2024.
“I am aware that members of the public have been anxiously
waiting for the conclusion of the recruitment of 4,500 teachers and today, I am
here to state that the recruitment of an additional 2,721 teachers caused the
delay in the announcement of the names of the 2023 successful applicants.” Hon.
Syakalima said.
He emphasise that the 4,500 teachers are those directly
recruited in 2023 and 2,721 have been selected on replacement from those that
remained in the 2023 data base.
The Education Minister said the announcement of the newly
recruited teachers is critical to addressing the high teacher – pupil ratio,
standing at an average of 1:58 for primary and 1:38 for secondary schools,
contrary to the acceptable teacher pupil ratio of 1:45 and 1:35 at primary and
secondary schools, respectively.
He said the announcement also responds to government’s
aspiration to realise suitable development goal number 4 of ensuring inclusive
and equitable quality education for all.
“In recruiting the teachers I am announcing today, the Teaching
Service Commission engaged the established human resource management committees
(HRMC’s) in all Zambia’s 116 districts to recruit the teachers in accordance
with the decentralization policy and the service commission’s act no. 10 of
2016.” The Education Minister told the press.
The Minister said the recruitment process used was very
stringent and ensured that all citizens who qualified were given an equal and
fair opportunity to compete for available vacancies, irrespective of any other
consideration.
Hon. Syakalima commended the multi stakeholder collaboration
that characterised both the 2022 and 2023 teacher recruitment for the job well
done.
“In order to uphold accountability, transparency and
credibility, respective district commissioners played an oversight role
throughout the recruitment process, security wings from either the office of
the president - special division, drug enforcement commission or
anti-corruption commission monitored the process.” Hon. Syakalima said.
He added that in line with the staffing needs analysis and the
funds appropriated for the recruitment, the recruitment prioritised Secondary
school teachers specialised to teach mathematics, sciences, business studies,
ict and Zambian languages.
He said recruited teachers will be required to collect their
appointment letters from the district education boards secretary’s(DEBS)
offices where they are selected and begin processing their appointment
documents in readiness to report for duty within the first term.
“You may wish to know that in the 2023 recruitment, applicants
above the age of 45 were allowed to apply as long as they showed proof of NAPSA
contribution, and of the 4,500 teachers recruited, about 1% will be over
45-year-old, implying that almost all the teachers recruited are relatively
youthful. through a centralised recruitment system, 451 teachers living with
disabilities were also recruited.” Hon. Syakalima said.
The Minister paid gratitude to his Excellency the President of
the Republic of Zambia for this commitment to ensuring that every Zambian child
receives quality education as this is the only sure way of guaranteeing a
prosperous Zambia by the year 2030.
And Teaching Service Commission Chairperson, Daphne Nawa-Chimuka
her Commission is glad to have finished the 2023 Teacher Recruitment exercise
that started in June 2023.
She said the recruitment was undertaken I all the 116 district in the country.
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