Govt to recruit 19 000 teachers
Government says it will this year recruit all the 10 000 teachers who graduated last year and another 9 000 that are yet to graduate from the country’s teacher training colleges (TTCs).
Chief Secretary to Government George Mkondiwa said this in Lilongwe on Wednesday on the sidelines of a press briefing organised to provide progress of the Public Service Reforms.
for teachers’ salaries
He said Treasury has released funds for the teachers’ salaries, adding this means the recruitment could be effected.
“Even though there were some vacancies in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology we could not recruit the teachers without money to pay them,” said Mkondiwa.
“But since we now have the funds from Treasury, all the 19 000 teachers will be absorbed into the system this year.”
Earlier, Vice-President Saulos Chilima, who is also chairperson for the Public Service Reforms Commission (PSRC) noted that the situation in the education sector had improved such that teachers were now receiving their pay on time.
He said this was due to the reforms initiative which saw the decentralisation of the salary payment system to the zones, stressing payment would shortly start being done at district level.
“As a result of this reform teachers no longer have to travel long distances to get their salaries,” said Chilima.
“The next reform area in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is to improve quality education by taking teachers through to getting a university teaching certificate programme and upgrading primary school teachers to diploma level, among others things.”
Chilima, who outlined a number of achievements under the programme, assured the public that the reforms were working and that they were there to stay.
