The Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) observes that recruiting more teachers can help the country mitigate the impact of Covid-19 in the education sector.

Speaking in an interview with Money FM News, Organization Executive Director George Hamusunga said more teachers are needed to create more streams in schools so as to avoid overcrowding.

Mr. Hamusunga further observed that having more streams can go a long way in ensuring that pupils are keeping some level of social distancing.

“We need more teachers for us to create more streams so that we don’t congest the schools. By employing a lot of teachers, it can help us mitigate the impact of Covid-19. We need to be running more streams to ensure that we are keeping some level of social distancing although social distancing is not an issue for us actually now in schools.

“We know children are not social distancing at home, and we cannot be blaming the non-social distancing only in the classroom but elsewhere it is okay. They are not even social distancing on their way to school, and we know that the public health measures work in combination, so it’s not only one measure. If you are masking up, washing your hands regularly, if you are observing hygiene and you take other precautions, then definitely our children will be in a safe environment,” Mr. Hamusunga stated.
He lamented that the country does not have the capacity to run many streams in schools because it requires a lot of teachers.

Mr. Hamusunga welcomed government’s plans to recruit 15,000 teachers out of the 44,000 earmarked for recruitment.

“That is a very positive development. We really need those teachers to come and help us ensure that we can run many streams in schools, maybe these come for three hours, the other ones come for three hours and that requires a lot of teachers but we do not have the capacity to do that,” he said.

Yesterday, Minister of General Education Dennis Wanchinga disclosed that the Ministry intends to recruit 15,000 teachers.

Dr. Wanchinga said when President Edgar Lungu met some chiefs in Lunga district that the 15,000 teachers to be employed are out of the 44,000 earmarked for recruitment to counter the effects of COVID-19 on the education sector.