Friday, March 29, 2024

Fake teacher qualifications shocking-ZANEC

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The Zambia National Education Coalition says it is shocked by the revelations that over 500 teachers across the country have alleged forged academic qualifications.

ZANEC Executive Director Grace Sinkamba is now calling for an urgent and extensive investigation in the matter to ascertain the exact magnitude of the problem.

Mrs Sinkamba said the provision of quality education is one of the cornerstones of the education sector and having teachers possessing credentials that lacked credibility should not be tolerated.

She emphasized the need for having constant and tight quality controls in the delivery of education both at primary and tertiary level.

“The revelation by the Teaching Council of Zambia (TCZ) should not just be a matter of dismissal from employment on the affected teachers,” Mrs Sinkamba said.

“The revelation should also be a good opportunity for relevant authorities to put in place tangible mechanism that will prevent unqualified people from entering the teaching profession. The proposed mechanism should be able to detect forged results at the point of entry into Teacher Training Colleges.”

She said it is equally regrettable that some teachers had worked for many years before their alleged forged qualifications could be detected.

“While condemning any vices of illegalities, we also hope that the TCZ will accord the affected teachers an opportunity to be heard before striking any disciplinary measure on them,” she said.

“We don’t want to have a country whose education quality is compromised and doubted. The introduction of authorities such as the TCZ has been supported by ZANEC from inception and such revelations on the existence of over 500 teachers with forged qualifications indicate a positive work that the body is doing.”

“We urge the Government through the Ministry of General Education and the Ministry of Higher Education to give full support to the TCZ if its functions of ensuring quality education provision was to be realized and subsequently sustained.”

She said, “As an organisation equally charged with a responsibility of capacity building of member organisations, we encourage teachers to study hard and obtain their qualifications legitimately instead of using illegal means.”

Mrs Sinkamba said the consequences of obtaining forged academic or professional qualifications are grave and paint a bad image on the affected individuals and indeed the education system in Zambia.

“We should all strive for quality to achieve excellence. Once more, we thank the TCZ for bringing out such unfortunate discoveries and revelations in our education sector.”Fake teacher qualifications shocking-ZANEC

The Zambia National Education Coalition says it is shocked by the revelations that over 500 teachers across the country have alleged forged academic qualifications.

ZANEC Executive Director Grace Sinkamba is now calling for an urgent and extensive investigation in the matter to ascertain the exact magnitude of the problem.

Mrs Sinkamba said the provision of quality education is one of the cornerstones of the education sector and having teachers possessing credentials that lacked credibility should not be tolerated.

She emphasized the need for having constant and tight quality controls in the delivery of education both at primary and tertiary level.

“The revelation by the Teaching Council of Zambia (TCZ) should not just be a matter of dismissal from employment on the affected teachers,” Mrs Sinkamba said.

“The revelation should also be a good opportunity for relevant authorities to put in place tangible mechanism that will prevent unqualified people from entering the teaching profession. The proposed mechanism should be able to detect forged results at the point of entry into Teacher Training Colleges.”

She said it is equally regrettable that some teachers had worked for many years before their alleged forged qualifications could be detected.

“While condemning any vices of illegalities, we also hope that the TCZ will accord the affected teachers an opportunity to be heard before striking any disciplinary measure on them,” she said.

“We don’t want to have a country whose education quality is compromised and doubted. The introduction of authorities such as the TCZ has been supported by ZANEC from inception and such revelations on the existence of over 500 teachers with forged qualifications indicate a positive work that the body is doing.”

“We urge the Government through the Ministry of General Education and the Ministry of Higher Education to give full support to the TCZ if its functions of ensuring quality education provision was to be realized and subsequently sustained.”

She said, “As an organisation equally charged with a responsibility of capacity building of member organisations, we encourage teachers to study hard and obtain their qualifications legitimately instead of using illegal means.”

Mrs Sinkamba said the consequences of obtaining forged academic or professional qualifications are grave and paint a bad image on the affected individuals and indeed the education system in Zambia.

“We should all strive for quality to achieve excellence. Once more, we thank the TCZ for bringing out such unfortunate discoveries and revelations in our education sector.”

13 COMMENTS

  1. I honestly didn’t know Zambia has gone this far with corruption mwebantu? Everywhere you look be it; Police force, immigration, lawyers, government, ZRA etc, it’s corruption. Are our children, grandchildren and their future children’s children safe? Kaya mwandi, it’s Zambia in the sun ?

    • imwe, what’s the fuss all about? Back in our days we used to have untrained teachers teach us and we managed to pass to go to university. I remember becoming better than most of my trained teachers when I reached grade twelve and started helping my friends to understand what we where being taught.

  2. Comment:
    The entire civil service must undergo a forensic examination of the validity of qualifications of the workers therein.

  3. Yes this issue requires scrutiny. If investigations could be done, I’m sure more offcers wud be brought to book. Questions of “how”, “who” “what”. How did they get into college, how did they get employed; who enrolled/employed them, who confirmed them? Someone owes us an explanation as to what happened. 1.Wen getting into college they presented their papers and they were acceptd. 2. Getting employed they presented their qualifications and ministry accepted them from one office to the other counter signing. So leave the teachers alone you ministry explain to us.

  4. I have said it before and I will say it again. I used to work for ZEC and just check all Zambian professions from medicine, law, politics, engineers there are plenty of fake certificates. Even current ministers are involved. The nation needs cleaning up

  5. The government must check the entire civil service fire and prosecute all the culprits involved then re advertise the positions so that our genuine unemployed graduates can get the jobs. MPs must raise this issue in the next sitting of parliament as a matter of urgency. Unfortunately I don’t think this government can rise up to the challenge as they themselves are corrupt to the core and maybe partly responsible for this scandal. In civilised countries the ministers for education would by now have resigned. This now explains why the educational standards have fallen so drastically in zambia.

  6. For the record you are spot on,,, the whole country and the attitude of the country to corruption must be changed.
    Its our culture of kwik cash, doing a deal, my turn to eat, chew,. In all honesty unless you are a villager we have a lousy attitude to HARD WORK.

  7. Just leave things the way they are, no one is complaining. Fake people with fake qualifications are everywhere be defence, education, health, financial institutions etc and are doing a good job. Leave them alone.
    stop hating, if you cant beat them join them!!!!

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