By Martha Simchimba

Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC) has hailed government for recruiting and promoting 9,753 teachers across the country saying the move will assist in improving quality of education in the country.

CSEC Executive Director, Benedicto Kondowe, expressed excitement with the move saying it will significantly contribute to positive strides towards improvement of education standards in the country.

“The infusion of 9,753 educators, alongside promotions, reflects a steadfast commitment to addressing the critical shortage of teachers nationwide which is essential for nurturing academic excellence and fostering effective teaching and learning environments,” he said.

Kondowe said, to further empower education standards in the country, CSEC advocates for sustained recruitment efforts, which is equitable distribution of teachers and strategic review of resource allocation between training and employment, in order to ensure that every student receives the much needed guidance to unlock their full potential.

Ministry of Education Public Relations Officer, Mphatso Nkuonera, said hiring and promotion of teachers will narrow down to proper teacher-student ratio in secondary schools.

“You are aware that in secondary school a teacher is supposed to handle 40 students per class but due to insufficient number of teachers, sometimes the ration goes to 50 students which is not a recommended standard.

“Government saw the need and decided to recruit a huge number of teachers to cover the gap,” he said.

Nkuonera pointed out that government promoted teachers as one way of motivating them thereby improving service delivery. 

In an intervuiew, Glory Kamwela, a teacher of Mnjiri Community Day Secondary School in Mzimba said work promotion is a motivation and recruiting new teachers minimises workload in schools thereby increasing performance.

In a separate interview, one of the promoted teachers, Joseph Silweya, was excited for the promotion saying it will go a long way in improving teaching and learning as teachers are motivated.

Ministry of Education recruited and promoted 9,753 secondary school teachers; 2,681 have been recruited and 2,259 promoted at TI and TJ grades while 3,997 teachers have been promoted as senior teachers, grade TH and 316 teachers to the position of heads of department which is grade TG and 500 teachers as head teachers (grade TG).