Maravi

(HERALD ZW) Muchinga targets native teachers

Muchinga targets native teachers
By Moses Kuwema
Tue 04 Sep. 2012, 09:00 CAT

EDUCATION authorities in Muchinga Province have come up with a strategy of recruiting only single teachers or those who are married within the area as a way of maintaining the staffing levels.

Provincial education officer Jobbicks Kalumba disclosed this on Saturday during the provincial development committee meeting after Shiwangandu member of parliament, Steven Kampyongo, expressed concern at the high number of teachers that had left his constituency.

Kalumba said the province had lost a number of teachers because of transfers and that this had adversely impacted on the levels of teaching and learning in the province.

"We want to identify men and women who are single or married within the province because these will not go. They will remain with their husbands and wives within Muchinga Province. That is the scenario we have reached because we have lost a lot of teachers out of transfers," Kalumba said.

He said so far, more than 400 teachers had requested for transfers to provinces such as Lusaka, Copperbelt, among others.

"This is not healthy for the nation but fortunately the 350 teachers that are expected to report to the province this month are single or married within the province," he said.

''We are going to solve this problem. I learnt a lesson from Mpulungu where people are crying that teachers were going back. I said okay, 'what do I do?' We recruited single men and women for the first time; 65 of them. What happened was if a single man and woman reported for duty, I would send them to one school where they eventually fell in love, married and remained there. Thus we maintained the staffing levels in Mpulungu," said Kalumba.

He said the issue of transfers was a big problem but promised that this would come to an end.
Kalumba said the 350 teachers to be recruited for Muchinga would be sent to all the six districts in the province.
And Kalumba said in terms of infrastructure, the province still had so many schools made of pole and mud.
"Besides this, there are also a good number of classrooms that are dilapidated and inadequate making the atmosphere inconducive to learning. Staff houses are also inadequate and in some cases in poor state thus making it very difficult to send staff to schools that are in remote or rural areas where such situations are common," Kalumba said.

Kalumba said furniture in some schools was not adequate and that this was more pronounced during examinations when desks were not enough for both pupils in secondary and basic schools writing examinations.

He said the provincial performance at grade seven and 12 for the past three years had been improving steadily whereas at grade nine, a lot still needed to be done in all six districts.

Meanwhile, Kalumba said the province had collected all the staff files from Northern Province in addition to successfully holding the Teaching Service Commission session.

He said they had also developed a provincial work plan and strategic plan for the period 2012-2015 and had also held administrative meetings for all stakeholders in education aimed at improving learning and teaching.

Kalumba said other achievements that the province had recorded included the distribution of 4,000 desks from Mpika to Isoka that would be shared between Isoka and Mafinga, and appointed staff to manage education at Mafinga district education office.

Kalumba called on the government to procure vehicles for all districts and provincial offices, increase funding to all the institutions, recruit more staff, construct offices at Isoka and Mafinga and put the latter district on the establishment.

Labels: EDUCATION, TEACHERS, VOCATIONAL TRAINING

posted by MrK @ 1:54 PM