Government finances leave 9,000 teachers stranded

Zambia's already understaffed schools were dealt another blow this week after the government announced that some 9,000 teachers would not be deployed because of a lack of resources. The education ministry's press officer, Michael Katowa, on Tuesday countered media reports that the failure to employ teachers trained in 2002 and 2003 was due to World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) budget conditionalities. "The government has not deployed the teachers because there are no funds to pay salaries. The IMF support to the government is not intended to go towards the payment of wages and, therefore, it would be irresponsible for us to use that money to pay salaries," Katowa said. The loss of 9,000 additional teachers to the education system meant that schools, especially in rural areas, would have to go without teaching staff, he added. "We hope that as soon as the government announces the annual budget in parliament later this month, we will be able to slowly deploy some of the teachers. In the meantime, those teachers already in positions will be expected to double their workload. This is an unfortunate situation for everyone, especially because we have such a high rate of teachers dying from AIDS, leaving a significant gap in our schools," Katowa noted. Although Zambia's school enrolment has continued to grow at an annual rate of 2.3 percent, the rising prevalence of HIV/AIDS continues to deplete the population of teachers at an alarming rate. An estimated US $25 million would have to be spent between 2000 and 2010 to replace teachers who had died of HIV/AIDS. Zambia's Civil Servants Union (ZCSU) acknowledged the impact of HIV/AIDS on the education sector, but called for better planning by the government. "The government was well aware that there were teachers being trained and, at some point, these teachers would have to be positioned at various schools. Because of a lack of forward planning we now find thousands of teachers languishing, whereas they could have been already working, trying to alleviate the problems in the schooling system," ZCSU secretary-general, Darrison Chaala, told IRIN. Schools in Zambia have also been plagued by high drop-out rates, which the international NGO, Oxfam, in 2002 blamed on inadequate government funding and the inability of poor households to consistently pay fees. "Authorities need to spend more on social services and be more prudent in other areas. The news that the 9,000 teachers will not be deployed is extremely worrying. In rural areas, where the poorest of families live, there is a real need for quality education. How else, then, are these poor children going to escape this vicious cycle of poverty?" said Muweme Muweme of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection. Last year President Levy Mwanawasa's government incurred a budget overrun of US $130 million, after which the IMF and other donors withheld US $175 million in funding. Since then the country has had to cut corners in a bid to qualify for debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Should Zambia reach the HIPC completion point - delayed by six months to June this year - a possible US $2.8 billion of its US $6.2 billion debt could be written off.