Teacher Recruitment To Start Next Week

The cabinet has approved recruitment guidelines for hiring an additional 30,000 teachers, with advertisements expected to appear in the press from the next week, according to the Teaching Service Commission. 

The commission’s chairperson Daphne Chimuka said that cabinet approved the guidelines on Tuesday and that Education Minister Douglas Syakalima was set to announce them later today.

“The advert is ready and all we are waiting for is for the minister to issue the statement, and once that is done, we will publish the advert in the newspapers,” Ms Chimuka said.

The government has committed to hiring 30,000 new teachers before the end of its second term in 2031. Ms Chimuka told reporters that the process would be decentralised, with districts responsible for the selection process.

Last week, the government began advertising job vacancies for the more than 11,200 healthcare workers it intends to hire by the end of the year, including over 3,200 nurses. Adverts are currently running in the Times and Zambia Daily Mail until April 1st, with jobs available across a variety of professions: from pharmacists to dental technologists.  

The hiring of healthcare workers and teachers was a key tenet of the UPND’s election manifesto, with the aim of increasing employment as well as driving Zambia’s development through quality healthcare and education. 

In January, the government delivered on its cornerstone promise of free education for all children through secondary school. It has also funded more than 2,000 university scholarships to date through funds recovered from anti-corruption crackdowns.