61 NEW TEACHERS ‘DESERT’ RURAL ZAMBEZI
About 61 teachers posted to rural schools in Zambezi following the recruitment of over 30,000 teachers in 2022 have left the North-Western Province district on transfer with most of them citing illness.
However, Zambezi District Commissioner Simeon Machayi is not convinced by the reasons advanced by most teachers, who continue to draw their salaries on establishments for schools in the district.
Mr Machayi said most of the teachers sent to Zambezi look at the area as remote and fail to adapt to the environment.
“Most of them I do not know how they negotiate with doctors to write them medical conditions which they never brought up at the time they were seeking for employment,” he said in an interview.
“From the over 500 teachers that we received in 2023, about 61 have already left the district on transfers.
“These are transfers that are not initiated from here, they just come with letters already signed to the DEBS office that ‘I have already been transferred and I am going back’, but these are the teachers that are still drawing salaries under Zambezi.”
Mr Machayi said he has records of personnel from Ministry of Education headquarters who have been signing on the transfer letters for the teachers to be removed from the district.
“So, this time around, I will be coming to Solwezi with a list of those teachers that have been transferred from Zambezi, which I have already compiled to present to the permanent secretary so that maybe those teachers are removed on our payroll or they are dismissed,” he said.
ZDM
Fire them and blacklist them. If we are to go ahead in developing this country we can not have people who want to think certain places are beneath them. This some of us atitude has to stop with certain segments of society. A job is a job regardless of where you are posted. You think you are better than the job. Start your own company and deal with the shocks of being an employer and the market forces. Sha….ZNS when school leavers were sent had no time for this non sense. Fake medical reports. Fire the Doctors writing them. That is falsifying medical records. We cant be a country of criminals
It is best to put oneself in the position of these teachers. I was last in Zambezi some three years ago. It is such a beautiful district but with few opportunities for self-advancement for young people.
Best to replace them and have teachers who will be in Zambezi to stay. Do they not swear under oath that they can work anywhere when filling up civil service employment forms?
Investigate the doctors issuing those medical letters. A number of doctors have been fired in South Africa for dishing out fake sick leave notes. The ACC and other Investigative wings must step in without further delay.
Why should this even be problem, PMEC should just block the payroll for the fugitive teachers
There are many more waiting for employment. If these are not interested in working where they are posted then get rid of them and get the ones who are interested to work seriously.
There should be a deliberate policy to give priority in recruitment to graduate teachers who choose to serve within their areas of origin. Chiefs in Northwestern Province have a point in refusing to accept teachers who are not willing to serve within their areas because they end up with vacant teacher posts. It is best to give priority to those coming originally from these areas and willing to serve there. Issues of national integration are important but GRZ should make rural areas attractive enough to retain workers there.
Just fire those teachers and the DEBSs that are involved. Why did they apply to rural areas when they knew that they were not ready to serve there? They disadvantaged those who were ready to serve in those areas. Why should govt allow those education officers to jeopardize the plans of govt? Please fire them