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Zambia National Teacher’s Union in Livingstone commends government
Livingstone, February 12, ZANIS…..The Zambia National Teacher’s Union in Livingstone has praised government for its decision to recruit 8,000 teachers this year saying the move will significantly reduce shortage of teachers in schools across the country.
In an interview with ZANIS today, ZNUT Provincial Organising Secretary Kennedy Sumbwanyambe said the Union was extremely happy that the Patriotic Front (PF) government has shown real commitment to revive the education sector in the country by recruiting teachers.
He said the move will not only reduce shortages of teaching staff but will tremendously reduce unemployment levels among college and university graduates.
“As ZNUT we are extremely happy with the government for recruiting 8,000 teachers this year as this will go a long way in mitigating the shortages of teachers and help to reduce unemployment levels in the country,” said Mr. Sumbwanyambe.
He noted that the move will also help to resuscitate the ‘ailing’ education system in the country and improve the country’s efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015.
And Mr. Sumbwanyambe has implored the government to improve conditions of services for teachers to sustain and further enhance the teaching standards.
He explained that Southern Province was laden with a backlog of unpaid repatriation allowances, settling-in allowances, leave travel benefits which needed to be addressed in order to motivate teaching staff.
“Much as we appreciate government efforts in the education sector, we urge the government to further look into the issues of repatriation allowances, leave travel benefits, and settling-in allowances to motivate teaching staff,” said Mr. Sumbwanyambe.
Mr. Sumbwanyambe also welcomed calls for the introduction of local language in school as the language of instruction.
He said once implemented, pupils would be able to fully grasp the concepts and be able to apply it when they leave school.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sumbwanyambe has appealed to teachers in the province to remain calm as negotiations for improved conditions of service has started and are expected to be completed before the end of March this year.
He expressed hope that the government will honour and meet teachers’ demands to improve their conditions of service.
“I wish to state that negotiations have started and I want to appeal to all teachers to remain calm as the collective agreement for last year is still in effect and as ZNUT we hope that the government will meet our demands for new collective agreement before the end of March this year,” said Mr. Sumbwanyambe.
