Minister of Education Douglas Syakalima has announced that fresh applications for this year’s teacher recruitment will not be sought. The ministry will use the information already in its database from past applications.
Syakalima said only applicants who submitted their details last year will be considered in the 2024 cohort. A few weeks ago, the Ministry of Health took a similar decision and is relying on the backlog of applications from past years in the ongoing recruitment drive.
The government intends to hire 4,200 teachers this year, bringing the total number of teachers recruited by the UPND government since 2022 to 41,422—an intervention to reduce the huge gap between the number of learners and teachers in the country.
Syakalima further stated that corruption would not be tolerated in any form during the recruitment process and assured the hopeful unemployed teachers that everything would be handled transparently.
He said as part of the transparency, the hiring process will be subjected to objective validation to ensure that only eligible candidates are selected.
He said, hence, it was expected that everyone involved in the process would adhere to and uphold the tenets of the public service code of ethics, adding that “any officer who shall be found wanting shall face dire consequences.”
He warned the prospective employees to conduct themselves properly as good citizens and desist from offering bribes to be recruited.
Syakalima implored anyone who would be made to pay anything to be recruited to report all such incidences to the relevant authorities.
