Speaking during the graduation of 200 teachers under IPTE 15,  Professor Ken Bilima said it is imperative for government to recruit the teachers as schools need to have small teachable units in the wake of the Covid-19.

 

"We have IPTE 13 and 14 that were trained but have not been recruited so we are simply asking government to speed the process of deploying these teachers considering that there are many schools that are in need of teachers"

 

Professor Bilima said due to the covid-19 pandemic  classes have been split into small teachable units, hence the need for more teachers is paramount 

 

"This is very critical because classes have been split into small units and teachers are having a hard time coping with these units at a time when they are understaffed", Said Professor Bilima.

 

One of the graduating teachers Chikondi Andsen concurred with Professor Bilima saying as IPTE 15 teachers they also expect to be employed by government 

 

" This is a challenge as though trained we just end up idle with no work, we are also calling on the government to employ us, we know our friends who were trained under IPTE 13 and 14 have not been recruited but we expect the government to employ us too",said Andsen.

 

On the other hand, Andsen said Alma teachers college is very professional in the training they give to trainees by among others including components on how they can handle learners with special needs.

 

DC for the Mmbelwa district council Emmanuel Bambe conceded the need for teachers saying Mzimba district for example has a high vacancy rate for teachers.

 

" Recruitment in government is a continuous process and already we have seen human resource to local councils, out of the many vacancies we have the largest number falls under education, we have a lot of schools which have very few teachers and I understand as government the process of recruiting teachers has already started very shortly we should able to get further communication on recruiting teachers ", Said Bambe.

 

Bambe commended Alma teacher training college for taking an active role in ensuring that the education sector has well-trained personnel.

 

Alma teachers training college has trained 500 teachers since its inception.