The National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ) has commended the government’s decision to employ more teachers as it will improve the quality of education in the country.
NAQEZ Executive Director, Aaron Chansa said that the move will help address the over enrollment in class rooms of public schools due to the introduction of free education in 2022.
He urged the government to set aside money to employ at least 15,000 teachers in 2024 compared to the 4,500 employed in 2023.
He also added that there is a need for the government to build more infrastructure especially in rural areas to accommodate pupils and teachers.
Mr Chansa was speaking in a telephone interview with ZANIS in Lusaka today.
He explained that currently the country needs more than the stated deficit of 150,000 teachers.
“The deficit of teachers continues to increase, last year it was at 75,000, this year it is at 150,000. The truth of the matter is that we still need a lot of teachers, our survey indicates that we still have a lot of schools with one or two teachers, this is not good for quality education.” He said.
He further noted the need for the government to build proper accommodation for teachers in rural areas as the teachers will soon want to migrate to urban areas.
Meanwhile Secondary School Teachers Union SESTUZ General Secretary Sitibekiso Wamuyuwa said that any move to employ more teachers by the government should be appreciated as the country’s economy is not able to sustain the high number of employed teachers.
He said that the low number of enrolled students in the school of teaching is attributed to the low number of teacher employment in the past years.
