NEW ZAQA QUALIFICATION VERIFICATION LAW RAISES CONCERN
The United Federation of Employers in Zambia (UFEZ) has raised concern over the recent law introduced by the Zambia Qualifications Authority (ZAQA) that seeks verification of academic qualifications for all job applicants in both public and private sectors.
UFEZ President, Humphrey Monde, has described the new law as alarming.
Mr Monde says the federation does not see any need of verifying academic qualifications for one to apply for a job anywhere as they were already verified by their respective regulatory bodies.
He said this in a statement made available to ZANIS news in Lusaka.
He stated that academic qualifications such as primary and secondary were already verified by the Examinations Council of Zambia (ECZ) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) while other tertiary qualifications were verified by TEVETA.
Mr Monde said UFEZ is concerned because the new law has come at a time when the government is working tirelessly to promote access to free education which will later lead to quick employment.
He said the verification process will just increase bureaucracy that contradicts decentralisation efforts and cause higher unemployment due to the fees required when verifying credentials.
Mr Monde stated that the verification fees that ranged from K50 for basic qualifications to K1,200 for foreign qualifications poses financial burdens on citizens.
He said the charges will also raise the cost of doing business for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) leading to higher prices of commodities.
Mr Monde said the federation does not expect laws that make hiring more costly undermining the government’s goals of making life easier for citizens.
He urged the government to act swiftly to protect businesses, employment, and the economy at large.
Mr Monde further appealed to the government and ZAQA to repeal the law immediately and ensure future regulations are developed with proper stakeholder engagement, particularly from the private sector.
I concur with you! It appears the authority was just formed without any research, standards and goals. While its an important sector and growing industry that needs the support of the industry, it can not just appear from nowhere like a policeman trying to ambush people at a party for being drunk. There still alot of issues the government can do through the examination Council or Science and Technology Ministry to migrate examination results from Technical Colleges and I believe from other colleges too to electronic databases. Some TEVETA colleges, including Examination Council don’t have results of students who graduate before 2012. I am doing an MSc degree in Electrical Power at one of the German Universities, despite having a BSc degree in Electrical, they had requested me to get a Transcript from my Technical College in Zambia. It was shocking the couldn’t find any records. The last record they had went as far as Dec 2010. It appears all the records have been archived and no one knows what happened to them. Examination Council also does not have any records. Now the question is, how is ZAQA going to verify these qualifications when the system has no records.
Let the ministers and our ZAQA lady do the Housekeeping first before they start running around like headless chickens. In fact I believe they need training before and studying how othe Qualification Authorities work. Small steps, slow by slow. You can’t start running before you learn how to walk. Good luck.