Self-Upgraded Teachers Wants Automatic Promotion Not Interviews

Mzura

Teachers who are seeking promotion after having ‘self upgrade’ to Diploma and Degrees levels are now demanding for automatic promotion and not undergo for interviews.

This comes when Ministry of Education, Science and Technology officials announced on Wednesday during a round table meeting between Parliamentary Committee on Education and the delegation of Self Upgraded Teachers that ‘a round’ process of promoting upgraded teachers has begun but will have to passing through interviews.

Secretary for Teaching Service Commission, Richard Kayesa informed the Committee and Teachers that the Ministry began the process of promoting teachers in March this year with invitation of applications from all upgraded teachers to fill-in the vacant posts and that the list of successful candidates has been released to the public and interviews will begin from Monday next week until May 11, 2016.

Although, Chairperson for Self Upgraded Teachers, David Mzura, made acknowledgement that teachers have applied for the advertised posts, but reacted that the interview process was not the actual promotion arrangement that self-upgraded teachers were supposed to go through.

He said “We are not satisfied with the decision that has been made because they have followed wrong procedure. At pre-graduation meeting at Domasi College, we were told to submit our copies immediately after graduation so that we could be promoted immediately.” added “We submitted 20 copies to the division soon after graduation”

One of Self Upgraded Teachers also commented saying the interview policy came later after they issued a petition in 2014 to the ministry seeking clarification. The concerned teacher further observed that the ministry is applying the policy selectively because despite them being subjected to interviews, others have recently been promoted without interviews.

When the Chairperson for the committee, Elias Chakwera, asked the ministry to clarify about the interview Policy, Director of Human Resource in the Ministry, Joyce Somanje said interview policy is not new development but only that teachers did not know that the policy exist. She said every person in Civil Service who wants promotion after upgrading goes thought the same process and “It is a normal policy and requirement that teachers cannot be exempted from”

The officials from the Ministry of Education also indicated that it is not automatic that one who upgrade can be promoted because there are a lot of people now upgrading and therefore the ministry cannot accommodate all of them at once.

“We were asked to submit the copies of certificates for us to be promoted automatically and this is not what is going to happen.” Insists Mzura later in an interview

The total number of teachers eligible for promotion are in four categories; 1,500 Secondary School teachers (Grade TI), 220 Teacher Training College (TTC) Lectures (Grade TI), 1,700 Secondary School Teachers (Grade TJ with Diploma in Education) and 300 Principal Primary School Teachers-Special Needs (Grade TJ with Diploma).

The concerned teachers also fear that the interview policy will see many of them being left out since the ministry wants to promote very few.

According to figures from the Ministry, there are only 483 vacancies for the post of Secondary School Teachers Grade TI against a total of 872 applicants invited to compete for the post while for the post of TTC Lecture Grade TI, there are only 50 vacancies yet 116 applicants will compete for the post.

And 586 applicants have been invited to compete for the post of Secondary School Teacher Grade TJ which has 516 vacant positions while 229 applicants have been invited for the post of Principal Primary School Teachers-Special Needs Grade TJ which has only 169 positions.

“If you have seen the statistics they have given us, you will find that a large number of teachers will not have a chance of being promoted to the next grade. And they have to wait for another four years to be promoted’’ Observed Mzura

‘’So, if you are a worker and you are demotivated, how are you going to work effectively?’’ wondered Mzura,  ‘’And therefore when we are saying that quality education is being affected in Malawi this is one of the issues that is causing this because teachers are being demotivated.”

He then said they will continue holding discussions with the Ministry in order to find ways how the problem can be solved.

He however encouraged fellow shortlisted teachers to continue with the interviews and urged other self-upgraded teachers to join their group so that they can speak with one voice.