Teaching Service Commission chairperson Jennifer Chiwela said in an interview in Lusaka on Thursday that the teachers were dismissed for various offences which include having sexual relations with pupils and impregnating others.
Mrs Chiwela said, however, no teacher was dismissed for such offences in Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces.
“As of January 2014 to December 2016, a total of 23 teachers were dismissed out of which 13 were dismissed for having carnal knowledge of pupils while the other10 were dismissed for impregnating pupils,” Mrs Chiwela said.
She said the Teaching Service Commission is still investigating the recent alleged sexual abuse cases at Kasama Girls Boarding Secondary School.
Mrs Chiwela also said investigative wings are carrying out investigations concerning the sexual abuse of pupils by teachers and a report will soon be released once all the information is gathered.
Meanwhile, Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) secretary-general Newman Bubala has warned that teachers in the habit of sexually abusing pupils will be deregistered through the teaching council.
Mr Bubala said in an interview that the action taken against teachers found sexually abusing pupils should serve as a warning to others.
“As a labour movement, we are deeply saddened by the conduct of the teachers who sexually abuse pupils when they are supposed to provide a conducive learning environment to the pupils in order to help shape the child to become a better member of society,” he said.
Mr Bubala urged teachers to always uphold professionalism in the execution of their duties.
“We will not hesitate to deregister any teachers found wanting through the teaching council as teachers should be seen to be models to the pupils and not a danger to the learners and society as a whole,” he said.
Mr Bubala said teachers should live up to expectations and to refrain from denting the image of the profession.
Irrelevant picture used for this story. How will this school feel for their picture to be used for such a story?
No femal
Why arent the teachers dismissed and CHARGED
Employer dismisses them.. Parents to take the case(s) to the courts. If after DNA it is found that the teacher was not the one responsible for the pregnance, he will sue the employer for wrongful dismisal.. Opening a can of worms Full stop.
Don’t just fire and de-register them, that is not enough. The law should also take its course as most of those abused are below the age of sixteen. This is either rape or having carnal knowledge with a minor which attracts a sentence of not less than 15 years in prison. Its unbelievable that this teacher commission has not mentioned anything about cases being taken to court. What is wrong with these morons? If one of the abused were your child would you just say fire him and it ends there? Let us be serious and prosecute these cases so that others learn from them and not just firing and de-registering them.
Just dismissing? We need these teachers to be convicted- minimum sentence of 15 years for defilement. When you start convicting them that’s when the behaviour will change, we need more female teachers for girl schools and the girls must be instilled with good values at these schools. The teachers role is to instill values on the pupils and not just to heap academic materials on them.
Merely 23.isn’t enough… this problem is more common in schools than it is given attention. There should have been more teachers dismissed and prosecuted. And it’s not only teachers, even members of the society, especially those with cash abuse these vulnerable kids, taking advantage of their poverty and vulnerability.
The investigation organs need to be empowered and given enough resources to do their jobs. I reckon even the police need to be involved, especially in rural areas.
Teachers should be role models to their pupils not the other way round .thy should impart knowledge and values to th learners. I think those defilers should not only be fired but pesecuted as wel
what happens to these Girl pupils who push themselves on Male Teachers due poverty . I think punishing only Teachers will not curb this vise, Dressing model for even female Teacher and Girls sometimes sets out this naive Youths into practicing sex. For Girls some of them became vulnerable to early sex relationship and plug themselves into these situations, let the government put in place a program to help vulnerable school children so that they afford a comfortable learning environment for both day and boarding schools. Teachers need to be counseled and even these girls will be helped to concentrate in studies, Sex is an issue in the today lifestyle now as people moral are degrading if we still want to think like 10 years it will be very difficult to control our generation, These type…
Francis, edit what you write, otherwise its meaning and substance may be lost .
sorry about this broken English, i was writing in a hurry as … being scared of being caught on internet.