• The exercise will reduce the number of unemployed teachers in the country which currently stands at 60, 864.
• The recruitment process has been decentralized to the district level.
• Schedule of the successful candidates is expected to be published on 4th May, 2022.

Minister of Education has disclosed that the Teaching Service Commission will advertise the recruitment of 30, 000 teachers on 5th, 6th and 7th April 2022.
In his Ministerial statement to Parlaiment, Douglas Siakalima says Zambia Postal Services Corporation (ZAMPOST) will start receiving and delivery of applications to various districts by 5th April 2022, while placement on the payroll of new teachers will be done from 23rd May to 10th June, 2022, as the teachers report to their respective districts and schools.
Mr. Siakalima stated that K1, 994, 817, 600 has been provided for in the 2022 national budget for the recruitment of the 30, 000 teachers, therefore the exercise will reduce the number of unemployed teachers in the country which currently stands at 60, 864.

He said the schedule of the successful candidates is expected to be published on 4th May, 2022.

“An analysis of the school structures and the payroll indicates that the Ministry has a total of 104,448 teachers countrywide.” However, with the additional number of schools that government has constructed, upgraded and gazetted without corresponding resources to operationalize them, the education sector at Early Childhood Education, primary and secondary levels still has a deficit of 115,066 teachers. This deficit has adversely affected the teacher-pupil ratio especially in rural areas. In order to improve teacher-pupil ratio, government will endeavour to continue to recruit teachers every year.”

He added that the recruitment exercise has been decentralized to ensure smooth teacher recruitment, therefore applicants will be required to submit applications to the District Education Board Secretary’s Office in districts where they wish to be deployed.
“The recruitment process has been decentralized to the district level in line with government policy on decentralization. In this regard, applicants will be required to apply to the District Education Board Secretaries’ offices in the districts where they wish to be employed through ZAMPOST. Upon receipt of the application, ZAMPOST will send an SMS notification to the applicant as proof of receipt,” he stated.”

“ZAMPOST will capture all applications received and create a database. The database and the applications will be delivered to the District Human Resource Management committees at the respective districts who will open and undertake the selection process. The rationale behind this requirement is to remove the human interaction and or intervention between the applicants and the staff involved in the processing of applications. This will further reduce the cases of nepotism and corruption,” Mr. Siakalima said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Siakalima noted that the Teacher pupil-ratio in most schools stands at 1 teacher to 70 pupils, against the desired teacher -pupil ratio of one teacher to 40 pupils for Primary and 1 teacher to 35 learners for Secondary schools.
He said government will endeavor to recruit teachers over the next 5 years in order to attain the standard teacher pupil ratio.
“This undesirable ratio has adversely affected the delivery of quality education for all. Therefore, recruitment of the pronounced number of teachers will definitely improve teacher-pupil ratios, teacher-learner contact time as well as the provision of quality education and ultimately contributing to attaining the desired learning outcomes.”

“Government will endeavour to continue to annually recruit more teachers over the next five years, so as to attain the standard teacher-pupil ratios of one teacher to forty and one teacher to thirty-five pupils for primary and secondary schools, respectively by 2026,” Mr. Siakalima said.