Maputo, 8 Jan (AIM) – The Mozambican Education Ministry needs about 12,000 new teachers to meet the demands of all the education subsystems – but the budget will only cover recruitment of less than 3,000.
The Ministry spokesperson, Manuel Simbine, recently told the press that “the county would feel comfortable if it hired about12,000 teachers, and we would significantly reduce overtime situations.”
He was announcing the sector’s needs at a moment when the National Association of Teachers (ANAPRO) is threatening to boycott the ceremonies marking the start of the 2024 school year unless by then the teachers have received the overtime payments due to them.
The teachers claim that more than 13 months of overtime are in arrears, and accuse Education Minister Carmelita Namashalua of lying about the payments.
According to Simbine, the Mozambican government this year will hire 2,803 teachers for secondary and primary education. 684 of these will be N1 teachers [with higher education], and 1,277 will be N2 teachers [with 12th grade and three years of training]. There will also be 842 N3 teachers [with 12th grade and one year of training] for primary education.
“With the hiring of 2,803 teachers, the Ministry will now have 162,803 teachers. A total of 160,000 teachers had been ensuring the teaching and learning system on a national scale”, said Simbine.
He acknowledged that the number of teachers to be hired falls short of the sector’s needs but he guaranteed that the teachers who will be joining the sector have the necessary qualifications to ensure the full functioning of the schools.
According to Simbine, the new approach to training teachers enables them to work “in an inclusive way”.
“As long as we can’t hire teachers according to the needs of each school, we will continue to manage situations of overtime, second classes, and classes with numbers of students that exceed the target”, he said.
He recalled that on 2 October, enrolment for first grade began, with a target of 1.6 million pupils. By the last week of December, only 1.1 million had been enrolled, 72 per cent of the target.
He added that at the moment enrolment is under way for 7th and 11th grades, with 855,286 pupils expected to enroll by 22 January.
He appealed to parents and guardians who, for whatever reason, did not register on time, to go to the schools to enroll their children.
He also called on parents and guardians who are opting for private schools to check that they are legal. They should check that the schools are licensed to teach, at the risk of not receiving their diplomas at the end of the year, if the school is not properly licensed.
(AIM)
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