Harare (New Ziana)- The government is set to hire 7 000 teachers this year to address shortages which have seen the teacher to pupil ratio go up in schools.
Responding to questions from legislators, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Evelyn Ndlovu said some schools in rural areas did not have enough teachers.
“It is true that we have schools in our rural areas that do not have enough teachers. As a result, we appealed to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, through the Public Service Commission, to have more teachers recruited this year.
“This year in our budget, we have been allocated 7 000 teachers that are going to be recruited apart from those that we are replacing for instance, those who retired, what we call attrition. So we are working closely with the Public Service Commission to first recruit 2 500 to replace those teachers that have retired, those that have passed away or those that have resigned,” she said.
“The current position is that we are again working on the recruitment of the 7 000 teachers. So our teams are working on that to make sure that we get Treasury concurrence for the recruitment of the 7 000. Otherwise the 2 500 we are recruiting because they are already in the budget but the 7 000, we need to clear with Treasury so that at least we pay them,” she said.
Ndlovu said last year, her Ministry requested for 50 000 teachers to be recruited into the service but was supposed to be given at least 10 000 teachers because of budgetary constraints.
She admitted that shortage of teachers could also be contributing to a drop in learners’ pass rate.
“We will make sure that we prioritise the rural pupils as it regards the educational teaching materials that we receive as a Ministry,” she said.
“I am glad to inform this House that we are working closely with the Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services to make sure that we take gadgets to the rural areas. We are also working closely with the Ministry of Information Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services to make sure that wherever we have got electricity, or we have solar power, we take the computers to the teachers and to the pupils,” said Ndlovu.
In 2022, the pass rate for Ordinary level was 28.96 percent, a rise from 26.34 percent the previous year.
New Ziana
