FAKE TEACHER RECRUITMENT SCANDAL: PROTUZ FINGERS TEACHING COUNCIL

By Arnel Chitundu

IT IS disastrous in the eyes of the International Community to see teachers applying for employment with fake results andthe Teaching Council of Zambia (TCZ) must give us answers, Professional Teachers Union of Zambia (PROTUZ) Public Relations Director Brian Mwila has charged.

Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Mwila said it was strange to have verification of professional and academic qualifications of applicants after recruitment as it was not procedural.

He stated that every normal procedure of verification was at the point before recruitment, a situation he said placed confidence on transparency.

He said that irregularities and lack of seriousness in the teacher recruitment process was a shame and people vested with such responsibilities should be careful.

He urged teachers applying to be employed by the Government to ensure that they had correct documents before applying for employment.

“What is it that the Teaching Council of Zambia (TCZ) is doing to pass such people to apply for employment with too many irregularities going on?” Mr. Mwila asked.

He explained that Zambia was still weak in legal enforcement, because even with a regulator in place, people were still misbehaving.

And an Educationalist Sitibekiso Wamuyuwa urged the Teaching Council of Zambia to up their game as they should not issue certificates to individuals without qualifications.

Mr. Wamuyuwa stated that the ongoing discoveries of fake results by teachers was a loophole originating from TCZ and that there was a need for an intensified verification exercise.

He said that TCZ should be careful and only issue certificates to qualified individuals with genuine and necessary qualifications and called for verification intensification to prevent recruitment of wrong individuals with wrong qualifications.

“Verification is done before recruitment and not after,” he said.

Ministry of Education Permanent Secretary in Charge of Administration, Noriana Muneku disclosed that officials from the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) and other stakeholders were currently verifying documents submitted by teachers.