Teaching Service Commission worried with teacher’s urban drift
By Staff Reporter
The Teaching Service Commission (TSC) says it is concerned with the increase in the number of teachers leaving rural districts on unregulated transfers.
TSC chairperson Stanley Mhango said the Commission would ensure measures were in place to encourage retention of teachers in rural parts of the country.
Mhango said this when he and other commissioners paid a courtesy call on Mambwe District Education Board Secretary (DEBS) and the District Commissioner.
“ …. teachers who are posted to rural districts must not use rural areas as an employment entry point and then later want to intimidate the DEBS to transfer them back to urban areas, I am urging the DEBS not to be intimidated by people who call her from the Ministry in Lusaka demanding that certain people should be transferred from Mambwe district to urban areas as government does not act on verbal instructions,” said Mhango
Mhango further said that any person who seeks to be transferred must have their Payroll Management Establishment Control (PMEC) Identity where they intend to go as the commission would not allow any person to be transferred and still continue to get a salary from a district the person is not serving from.
“Government is working hard to improve conditions of service for teachers so that learners can also benefit,” he said, adding that “if the conditions of service for teachers are not conducive, they will not be motivated to work hard and in the process the learners will suffer academically”.
He further called on all teachers to follow the Code of Ethics and not take part in partisan politics as was the case in the district.
And Mambwe District Education Board Secretary Theresa Ngoma revealed that the district has a shortage of teaching staff due to unregulated transfers with 54 teachers having left the district shortly after being posted.
“schools in the district also record a number of absenteeism cases among pupils during the rainy season – learners live in places where the road network is bad and becomes impassable hence the need for government to create more boarding schools in the district,” she said
Ngoma further added that the reading levels among pupils is also not good as there is lack of material to implement the revised curriculum.
“the good academic performance that the district keeps recording is due to hardworking teachers,”
Meanwhile, Mambwe District Commissioner Caroline Mwanza observed that some teachers in the district have developed a tendency of taking part in partisan politics when the law did not allow them.
