TEACHERS FEEL EXPLOITED BY EXAMINATIONS COUNCIL OF ZAMBIA ( ECZ )
As the country gets into the season of national examinations, overwhelming majority of teachers in Zambia have terribly complained about the slavery conditions they are exposed to during invigilation and marking of examinations .
For more than five years now and despite numerous engagements with the Ministry of Education and the ECZ , markers have continued to get K150 as daily allowance and in most cases, sleeping in pathetic hostels .
As an organization that is interested in the welfare of teachers and strongly believes that teachers must be happy when marking examinations ,we call on Hon.Douglas Siakalima to immediately address this issue before more teachers withdraw from participating in this important national exercise.We totally agree with teachers that ,the Ministry, through the ECZ , cannot continue to expose them to poor conditions for more than 5 years .It is being inconsiderate and sad for ECZ to give a K150 after a teacher marks for the whole day ,sometimes from 07hrs to 20hrs .This is clearly not fair and must seriously be addressed.
The sad part of it is that ,even the ugly marking allowances are paid very late to teachers .As we speak ,teachers have not yet received their allowances for marking the 2022 grade 12 external exams after doing the work in August .
To address the issue of accommodation ,NAQEZ urges the ECZ to give markers Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) .We would also want the Council to substantially increase the rate per script.Giving less than K2 per script for grade 9 makers and less than K4 for grade 12 markers is exploitation of teachers .
Lastly but very important,there is greater need for ECZ to start paying some allowance to supervisors and invigilators of national exams . Running these exams is very risky , extremely demanding and tiring .
Issued by :
Aaron Chansa
Executive Director
0979 552885
Email:qualityeducationzambia@gmail.com