Disability movement demand for clear road map on teacher recruitment

• Government has yet again left out several of deserving teachers with disabilities and special education teachers’ applicants.
• The Commission has continued giving lip service to the matter.
• This is a total mockery to the Disability movement.

Special Education Teachers Union of Zambia, Zambia Federation of the Blind and Zambia Federation of the Disabled, are disappointed with government’s move to leave out several deserving teachers with disabilities and special education teachers from the 2022 teacher recruitment exercise.
In a joint statement, Leaders of the disability movement charged that the teacher recruitment applicants with disabilities and Special Education Teachers were deliberately left out by an act, which they have described as discrimination on account of their disability.
The organizations said they have spent the last two weeks engaging Teaching Service Commission, pleading for a possible reversal and inclusion of teachers with Disabilities and Special Education into the teaching service, a matter of policy guideline for 10% reservation.
“Despite submitting a detailed and comprehensive list of deserving Teachers with Disabilities and Special Education Teachers applicants as per their demand, the Commission has continued giving lip service to the matter, a clear testimony that, the exclusion of the said categories of Teacher applicants was actually not a mare omission, but by design and a deliberate move.”
“As leaders of Persons with Disabilities, we think this is a total mockery to the Disability movement and we won’t sit and watch our rights being violated by Government machineries, in the name of the Teaching Service Commission and the Civil Service Commission, which are supposed to uphold and protect the rights and privileges of Persons with Disabilities,” they stated.
The organizations are demanding for a proper roadmap from government through the Teaching Service Commission on how they will deploy the said categories of teachers after they had misappropriated the 10% allocation that had the authority of the Secretary to the Treasury.
“We implore His Excellency Republican President and Cabinet Office to give humane prompt and unequivocal guidance to the Teaching Service Commission and Ministry of Education in this matter. We note that actually guideline no 4 of the 2022 teacher recruitment exercise asserts, as promulgated by Teaching Service Commission, that Ten percent of the available thirty thousand vacancies for teacher recruits, or three thousand posts, would go to Persons with Disabilities, further expounding that where shortfalls occurred, special education teachers, whether non-disabled, would take up cited gaps.
They added that out of 246 teacher applicants’ data base which the disability movement developed, and about 220 Persons with Disabilities who positively responded to the Ministry of Health recruitment advert, only 16 were picked by Ministry of Health, while about 40 confirmed being picked by the Teaching Service Commission, against their 10 percent entitlement of 4,169.
“We don’t know where the 196 teacher applicants with Disabilities announced by the Hon. Minister of Education came from, especially that there was no separate list for Persons with Disabilities.”

More From Author

World Bank urges Zambia to capture other benefits beyond mining sector

• World Bank is committed to supporting African countries to translate Africa’s mineral wealth into…

Read More

Kwacha gains should benefit consumers – BuyZed

• This is to ensure that consumers begin to enjoy what is produced locally.• Manufactures…

Read More

SEC attributes decline in Q4 bond trades to delayed debt restructuring process

• One of the challenges is to do with the delays in finalizing the debt…

Read More

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like

IZB profit up 18.74% to K604.33 million

IZB has posted a K604.33 million Net Profit after tax for the year ended 31st…

Read More

Indo Zambia Bank declares K50 million dividend cheque

This is part of the K125 million dividend, the highest ever for 2023 financial year.…

Read More

Economist expects currency to hit K15 between April, December, 2024

  The Kwacha has been experiencing an unusual decline since introduction of the Export Proceeds…

Read More