Teachers in Mpika District of Muchinga Province have maintained and proposed to government that the retirement age should remain at 55 years.
The teachers have rejected the optional 60 years retirement age.
The teachers made the proposal to Education Deputy Minister, David Mabumba who was in Mpika yesterday to check on the progress on the four day secondary schools under construction and had time to address teachers at Mpika boys secondary school.
The teachers also suggested that President Lungu should critically look at the submission in the final draft constitution on retirement age so that he does not contradict his decision.
They explained that retirement package be paid promptly at the last day of being in office so that retirees are not turned into destitution.
The teachers reminded the Patriotic Front-PF administration that the retirement age was one of the clear campaign messages that excited civil servants and public service workers to vote for President Edgar Lungu.
And in responding to the suggestions, Education Deputy Minister, David Mabumba called for calm adding that the retirement issue is being tabled in Cabinet and soon government would announce the outcome.
Mr Mabumba explained that President Lungu is also concerned with the matter and is making wide consultations with labour movements and experts so that consensus is reached.
And the Deputy Minister said the poor performance of the Zambian economy is also being caused by local contractors who have disappointed government with their shoddy works on capital projects.
Mr Mabumba said the economy of the country will never grow if contractors do not change their attitude towards work adding that Zambia is enriching other countries especially on borrowed money where profits are taken back by foreign investors.
He added that not until Zambians start encouraging hard work, professionalism, honesty, will the economy grow.
He narrated that the current scenario is not health for the nation because more investors in infrastructure development means growing other countries’ economies at the expense of local contractors.
He warned that soon his Ministry will be meeting with local contractors to chart the way forward adding that those who have proved to be failures risk being blacklisted and should not complain.
He said government is in a hurry to deliver development to the people and cannot afford unnecessary delays by contractors who want to enrich themselves before completing projects.
The retirement age in developed countries is 65 yrs old. Africans are lazy no wonder you are still behind.
@Retired ,what is the life span in the USA as compared to Zambia?
In Nigeria, the retirement age is 65 years – or after 35 years in service. Some countries have only lazy people.
Quit after 55 yrs to silence the” jobless six”.
Quit after 55 yrs to silence the lazy ” jobless six”.
English is tough,even the word optional cannot be understood by people we call teachers what about fishermen?
Somebody has just phoned me that the report about the teachers in Mpika was posted on April 1 Fools’ Day. It is clear that our children are not in safe hands.
This spirit which people have embraced of being negative to anything will paralyze the nation one day. Honestry how can the retirement age be an issue. people are lazy to work but they waby easy and fast money to fulfil their selfish desire at the expense of securing a better life for the y-generation. And after they retire blow the cash and come back congesting the corridors begging for tandizo. Find the answer to the puzzle optional.
Frustrated customer, you are right that English is difficult but you should have gone further to state that Bemba Speaking Teachers even professors are functional illiterates when English is used. That is why only Bembas can understand the PF manifessto. Edgar Lungu who speaks and reasons in English is being misundesrtood and beginning to be hated just as Mwanawasa was disowned the moment he discarded the Bemba regime of Chiluba. Edgar may be a chakolwa but at least he can be clearly understood by all Zambians apart from the Bembas .
Please spare Fshermen from Barosteland who have no problem with understanding English but they may just not agree with some ideas though spoken in standard English.
Though what you are saying is true, that is just wrong hahahaha. You are about to start a war on LT.
U zuhile cwang, at least I am not the only one that has seen that President Lungu is actually a very frugal individual. The more we work with him the better for all Zambians.
Viva Edith Nawakwi.
@8,who told you that all the teachers in Mpika are Bemba? You should be ashamed of your tribal thinking over a simple matter as this where the article has made no mention of ethnicity and yet it becomes your rallying point.If your concern is English language,you should have seen the mistake in paragraph 5 “….retirees turned into destitution ” and leave innocent ethnic groups alone.
what is wrong with Zambians? if you want to go at 55 go and let those who want to remain untill 65 remain. The problem with pipo with oposition minds is that you want to paint the picture that will show that all PF policies are bad . Imagine one accepts an appointment but refuses to shift. Govt provides mrdicine in hospitals you steal and blame govts of failing hospitsls.
@6 sibalomwana Chipwatanga. At least Bembas can learn English. You and your tribe have backward DNA which never evolves. Utulo!
On this one EL is spot on. The optional retirement is the best. My only suggestion is that at 50 all civil servants must submit their preferred retirement age and their package must be ready within a month from their last salary.
OPTIONAL is the word. And – oh – er – instead of whining and grovelling lobby your dozing parliamentarians to make sure that when you choose to retire at whatever age you still get your separation (except you only get entitled to pension payments at the statutory age). How is that for pragmatism. I do not understand why we want to have herd mentality when matters are straight forward.
@ KASAKA i pity you. So you came out of school the way you went in! Still uneducated. There is no gene for being backward. Google on genes and heritability maybe you will understand that no DNA is similar between individuals even among Bembas. Genetic coding is different for every individual. Stay away from topics you have no idea about.
@ Mr. Mention. It’s you I should pity for failing to pick up that my post was meant to be as absurd as @sibalomwana Chipwatanga’s. Anyway, I am not going to speculate on the reason as it’s not worth it.
These teachers in Mpika must be dull.What is the meaning of optional ? President Lungu has made a wise decision and us teachers on the copper belt are happy about it.The union leader for Profesional Teachers Union a Mr Muyembe explained so well on Radio 2 last week and people country wide appreciated.Teachers in Mpika should do distance education to understand issues in context.
All progressive countries in the world the retirement age is either 60 or 65.Why do you want to lag behind with the 55 years left by Welesky ? wake up and understand prevailing issues the world over.
Rains have affected my crops! Lesson plans have to be updated! My polygamous wives are now cheating on me! IZWE loans are deducting badly on my payslip! Am not yet confirmed by the teaching service! Pressure after Pressure!