GOVERNMENT says it plans to train more teachers to address a shortage of nearly 20 000 educators.
Higher and Tertiary Education minister, Amon Murwira, said this in Parliament while responding to questions from legislators on Wednesday.
"What we know according to our training schedules is that Zimbabwe still has a shortage of trained teachers," Murwira admitted.
"The issue which is there is the issue of posts that are released in the Primary and Secondary Education ministry that are funded by Treasury.
"As we speak, the last time we checked, we had around 15 000 to 20 000 vacancies and the teachers that we have trained are less than that in terms of the ones that have not yet been trained.”
Government recently recruited 839 teachers to fill vacant posts across the country, but unions said the figure was a drop in the ocean against a huge shortfall of over 20 000 educators.
In a letter dated October 2, 2023 directed to the Primary and Secondary Education ministry and the Public Service Commission (PSC), PSC secretary Tsitsi Choruma said the appointments should be processed with immediate effect.
Choruma said the appointments were subject to Section 7 (1) of Statutory Instrument 1 of 2000 as amended where the members will serve a probationary period of not less than one year.
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Murwira also said Zimbabwe has a shortage of about 3 000 to 4 000 schools.
“We believe that this will reduce the pressure at the available schools by doing this new approach to construction of schools. Our students from polytechnics and so forth are the ones who will build the schools while our trained teachers will teach at those schools,” he said.
Government is embroiled in a labour dispute with educators over poor salaries and working conditions.
They are demanding pre-2018 salaries of US$540 per month before President Emmerson Mnangagwa re-introduced the local currency in 2019.
Teachers have also been quitting the profession for the diaspora in search of better pay, leaving a huge shortfall in the country.
According to the Education ministry, Zimbabwe has an establishment of 136 000 teachers.
