8,000 primary teachers pressure govt for full employment
Over 8 000 Initial Primary Teacher Education (IPTE) graduates of the thirteenth and fourteenth cohorts are on government’s neck pressuring it to fully employ them arguing the country is wasting “too much human resource,” especially in the Ministry of Education.
Some of the IPTE 14 teachers, who on Tuesday presented a letter addressed to Lilongwe City Council Chief Executive Officer John Leo Chome, said apart from wasting “crucial human resource,” the Tonse Alliance-led government was not walking its talk on its promise to offer one million jobs in its first twelve months in office.
The letter, signed by the group’s chairperson Brighton Nyoni, has faulted the government for failing to take heed of their calls to employ them years after completing their training.
According to the letter, the teachers say it is baffling that education gets a lion’s share in the national budget each year, and yet it is failing to absorb them into the system.
“Sadly, it has been noticed that though such a huge amount of money is allocated, the ministry doesn’t want to recruit already trained teachers but it continues to train more teachers for example IPTE 15 teachers are expected to finish their course this coming August,” their letter reads in part.
On the other hand, over 3000 IPTE-13 teachers have demanded for full time jobs after the government offered them auxiliary ones in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to help in decongesting schools.
They have given the government “two days to employ them” failing which they say they will hold a vigil at Parliament from next Monday until their demands are met.
Speaking during the presentation of their petition submitted at the Parliament Building – and not Civic Offices as initially planned – president of the group, Joseph Maweru, said the government had promised them full time employment after their five months contracts but it has not happened.
Chairperson for the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Brainex Kaise, said “the Committee will work on the concerns” by engaging relevant authorities.
