Unemployed Teachers Association of Zambia (UTAZ) has alleged that the over 3000 teachers who are employed but reportedly not yet on payroll got their jobs through corruption.
UTAZ President Francis Musonda challenged the unpaid teachers to explain how they got into the education system for free adding that it was a well-known fact that many of them were involved in corruption for their appointments hence the delay to place them on the Government payroll.
Mr. Musonda said in an interview yesterday that both parties which includes teachers and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) officials who were involved in the act should be summoned and if possible, declare their appointment null and void.
He further suggested to the Government to recall the affected teachers and seriously caution them on the dangers of corruption.
“These are the people that are bringing the teaching profession down due to their acceptance to work for free for over a year in the public service. They are the reason why the Teaching Service Commission could not recruit a reasonable number of teachers in the just ended teachers Recruitment 2021,” Mr. Musonda said.
He advised the TSC to consequently do away with replacements if they cannot advise and do it for free without teachers having to corrupt anyone before getting employed.
Mr. Musonda said unemployed teachers across the country should not accept working before they are placed on payroll as working for years with pay degraded the profession.
He said the Government should also allow independent observers from the unemployed teacher’s community to be part of the selection team during teacher recruitment to avoid suspicions of corruption.
And the TSC chairperson Stanley M’hango said the commission’s main findings for the late placement on payroll of these teachers was that some unscrupulous individuals were issuing fraudulent appointment letters, one of the reasons it had taken time for those who were replaced to be put on the payroll since 2020.
Mr. M’hango said most of the duly appointed teachers who were not placed on payroll delayed to inform the commission for quick action.
“The commission is aware that there are teachers who were recruited by the TSC through replacements but have not yet been placed on the payroll. We had assured these teachers that their appointment was valid and we just asked them to give us time to conclude our investigations among other impediments,” he said.
Mr. M’hango said in order to promote merit based recruitment and appointment in the teaching service, the commission formulated and approved the recruitment and placement guidelines in the teaching service on May 18, 2021.
He said to this effect the filling up of all vacant positions from salary scale k and above, including lecturers in the colleges of education was done through internal adverts.
