Government has given the greenlight to parents to employ temporary teachers in critical shortage subject areas of sciences and early childhood development (ECD) while awaiting recruitment of permanent educators by the Public Service Commission.
The Ministry of
Primary and Secondary Education has set a target to employ 8 000 teachers this
year as it continues to address the teacher deficit in schools.
ECD has the
highest shortage of teachers with science and mathematics, among the worst
affected subjects.
Responding to
questions from legislators during Question and Answer time in Parliament,
Primary and Secondary Education Deputy Minister Angeline Gata said School
Development Committees (SDCs) have been granted permission to employ relief
teachers when they can afford them.
“As a ministry,
we have gone public on the shortage of teachers at ECD and other science
learning areas,” she said.
“We have even
extended that to other levels/grades that could be experiencing critical
shortages in schools.
“We are
grateful that our request is receiving attention from the employer (PSC). Over
the years, the ministry has been getting the services of what we call
para-professional teachers,” said Deputy Minister Gata.
“These were
engaged by our School Development Committees (SDCs) to alleviate the shortage
of teachers in our schools. The School Development Committees were given the
mandate to do so by the ministry on a temporary basis.”
She said the
relief teachers will be replaced when the PSC deploys qualified teachers to
concerned schools.
Deputy Minister
Gata said the Government does not interfere with the contracts between relief
teachers and parents.
“The contracts
of these para-professionals were between the schools and members concerned and
they were only contracted subject to the availability of funds to pay them by
the schools,” said Deputy Minister Gata. Chronicle
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