Over five thousand Initial Primary Teachers under 13 and 14 Ipte programs have requested for the parliamentary committee on education’s intervention for government to recruit them.

The development comes at a time when the Education sector has gotten the lion’s share of K327.3 billion (3.2 percent of GDP) and representing 16.5 percent of the total budget in the 2021/ 22 national budget.

In a letter sent to the committee, the teachers say in the 2020-2021 budget there was no recruitment of teachers which caused the unemployment of two cohorts of primary teachers (IPTE 13 & IPTE 14).

Bright Nyoni, Chairperson of the concerned teachers said for there is need to recruit more teachers so as to address the high teacher-student ratio in primary schools.

Nyoni said it is unfortunate that, the minister of finance did not allocate funds for their recruitment in this year’s budget, something he says propelled them to seek the intervention of the parliamentary Committee.

So far, the committee is yet to acknowledge receipt of the petition.

High in the education ministry allocation was the construction of three teacher’s training schools in mchinji, Chikwawa and Rumphi, the construction of 92 secondary school and over 382 low cost classrooms.

-MIJ Online-