1558 TEACHERS ORDERED OUT OF NDOLA AND KITWE TO RURAL SCHOOLS
A total of 1,558 teachers in Ndola and Kitwe have been ordered to go to rural schools after being found drawing salaries in town while children in rural areas are left without teachers.
Speaking when he met Teachers Union Representatives in Ndola, Copperbelt Province Minister Emmanuel Kasambo says the excess teachers will be redistributed immediately from overstaffed urban schools to understaffed rural schools across the province.
He says the imbalance is denying children in rural parts of the Copperbelt their right to quality education.
Mr. Kasambo says Kitwe alone has 1,247 excess teachers, made up of 699 primary teachers and 548 secondary teachers, while Ndola has 311 excess teachers, made up of 159 primary teachers and 152 secondary teachers, and he says the Ndola figures will be revisited.
Mr Kasambo has also warned District Education Board Secretaries against facilitating irregular transfers of teachers from rural schools to urban schools.
He says some teachers are arriving in offices with letters from Lusaka to secure transfers after serving in rural districts for only a few months, a practice he says must come to an end.
He says the transfers go against a Cabinet decision requiring a teacher to serve for four years before being considered for a transfer, and he warns that action will be taken against any DEBS or government official found to be facilitating them.
Mr Kasambo also says teachers who refuse to be transferred to rural areas will be fired.
He says he has since issued an instruction to the Provincial Permanent Secretary and the Provincial Education Officer to redistribute the excess teachers to the rural districts.
NewsOnTheGo