By KELVIN MUDENDA –
SOUTHERN Province is one of the worst performing regions in the education sector, Teaching Service Commission chairperson Stanley Muhango has said.
Mr Muhango said the office of the provincial education officer and the district education board secretaries in the province had a huge responsibility of ensuring that sanity was restored in the province.
Mr Muhango said this when he addressed district education board secretaries from all districts in the province and scores of teachers from Zimba, Kazungula and Livingstone districts at Terry Swartz Secondary School in Livingstone yesterday.
“My statistics on the cases that we have worked on as the commission prove that in terms of indiscipline, Southern Province is performing poorly. In terms of the number of teachers that have been fired or dismissed from the service as a result of absenteeism, the province is among the worst top 10.
“In terms of officers that have been dismissed from the service as a result of sexual misconduct amongst teachers with learners, the province is among the worst. In terms of teachers that have been fired for fraud or having forged academic and professional documents, the province is among the top 10 in the country,” Mr Muhango said.
He said the commission had dismissed 22 teachers for absenteeism, five for having canal knowledge of learners, six for unethical misconduct, and two for disorderly behaviour.
“Out of the 263 cases that we processed or those we dismissed from the service, 41 cases were from Southern Province, and the most unfortunate thing which actually pains the commission is that out of these 41 cases, 27 were female teachers,” Mr Muhango said.
The commission chairperson challenged district education board secretaries to ensure that there was productivity in Government-run schools.
“As the Teaching Service Commission, we want to see the value of the money that you are paid through the taxpayers. When you are given a responsibility to manage a school, a district or a province, can we own up and show leadership!” Mr Muhango said.
