DON’T LOSE HOPE, WE’RE STILL RECRUITING TEACHERS – HH
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has urged teachers to remain hopeful, assuring that government will continue recruiting them.
Meanwhile, President Hichilema recalled being called “calculator boy” by late president Michael Sata, saying numbers don’t lie and that is why he loves his numbers.
Speaking during the silver jubilee of BETUZ, Friday, President Hichilema acknowledged the challenges teachers face regarding delays in upgrading their pay, stressing that government was aware of these concerns and was actively working with unions to address them.
“The teacher recruitment numbers have already been given. I don’t want to repeat that but we shall continue recruiting teachers, recruiting you, and the message is that those who have not been recruited, be patient. You can see those from 2017 are coming through now, so next it is your time. Don’t lose hope.
Please let’s encourage the other teachers not to lose hope because their time is coming. BETUZ you will receive more members, Sinkala don’t think you are a master of recruitment, we are recruiting for you and thank you for accommodating the people we are recruiting for you and work with them.
You see how much we are interdependent, we do understand the issue of pay, we do understand the delays in upgrading teachers, we do understand that issue. So, we sit down and work with each other, ZCTU president Blake Mulala and his Secretary General were briefing me about negotiations going on,” President Hichilema said.
“I’m alive to those issues and we are working on them. I have explained to Mr Mulala a technicality which I don’t want to make public but that technicality will fall away very soon and I’ve guided a team to conclude soon. But I also want you to understand that this government has walked from a bankrupt economy, in four years we were able to get the economy moving. I want BETUZ and you the teachers to walk with your government, the government which supports you, the government which loves you. And with more growth of the economy, you will see you don’t have to raise certain issues, they’ll become obvious”.
President Hichilema said government’s expanded free education policy covering exam fees, bursaries, meal allowances and hostels had boosted enrollments and created demand for more teachers.
“Yesterday in this hall we had monks and mommas over there, they too now are receiving meal allowances and that’s how we consider free education. It’s beyond just primary or secondary school but also university through meal allowances and more bursaries. Numbers don’t lie, that’s why I love my numbers, that’s why the late president Sata used to call me a calculator boy, and he would ridicule me by calling me that, I mean I used to enjoy him calling me that. So, my response is that sir you need a calculator to do things properly. Numbers don’t lie, muleishiba utuntu (learn to know things), so our calculation is that free education is not just primary, now early childhood education, it is also colleges and universities; more bursaries, more meal allowances. It is also exam fees, what’s the point of teaching a kid for free and when exam time comes, the parents can’t afford exam fees, the child doesn’t write an exam? Is there a logic in that?” asked President Hichilema.
“So, I said to Minister Syakalima that I will not want to hear a kid not writing the exam after we have covered the educational cost and now, they don’t have exam fees. I issued a directive that government will pay for the exam fees, simple. And now let me draw a connection to you, teachers who graduated in 2017 were not employed, wasting them and some were even forgetting their teaching tools and methods. If they don’t practice, they’ll forget, isn’t it? 2017, 2018, no jobs [but] by introducing free education, bringing these two million plus kids into school, keeping college kids into school because we now can support them through bursaries and meal allowances and exam fees and building more hostels, it created a demand for you people seated in this room”.
Meanwhile, Zambia Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Blake Mulala thanked government for recruiting 30,000 teachers, adding that colleges had started enrolling again because graduates were now confident in future employment opportunities.
“Mr President, thank you for employing the 30,000 teachers, people abandon their professions to become taxi drivers. Colleges were no longer enrolling, now colleges are advertising because they are sure that they will be employed. We affirm our support for your government and on policies where we don’t agree with you, we are happy that from all presidents who have served this country, you bypass the record of the President who has more engagement with the labour movements. And I agree that we shall resolve all our issues of misunderstanding on the table of dialogue, thank you,” said Mulala.
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