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Yeukai Tazira  Herald Reporter
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has dismissed social media reports that it has completed the recruitment of 5 000 teachers.

In a statement, Primary and Secondary Education Secretary Mrs Tumisang Thabela said Government is aware of a fake list of names of “successful candidates” circulating on social media.

“As the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education takes concrete steps to fill the approved 5 000 vacant teacher positions, it has come to our attention that social media users have generated a list of those who have been allegedly successful,” she said.

She said approved lists will be published through relevant channels and the Ministry does not use social media to share such information.

“The Ministry would like to inform the nation that the final approved lists will be issued through the formal channels of the Government and Ministry, under the signature of the Permanent Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education, advising of the approval by the Public Service Commission.

“Prospective teachers and the nation at large are urged to disregard the cooked up list on social media and await the authentic notification. The Ministry does not use the social media for such key information sharing,” she said.

Teacher organisations applauded the recruitment and said it will help a great deal in bridging the teacher deficit at schools.

They emphasised the need to engage qualified teachers for optimum lesson delivery.

Rural Teachers Association of Zimbabwe (RTUZ) president Mr Obert Masaraure said more still needs to be done so that the teacher to pupil ratio tallies.

“We welcome the move by Government as our schools are in desperate need of teaching staff. However, the number falls short and will not bridge the deficit in our classrooms. There are still big gaps which need more teachers,” he said.

Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) chief executive Mr Sifiso Ndlovu concurred.

“We would like the Government to increase the number of teachers to meet the demand of teacher to student ratio because the current teachers are less than 20 000,” he said.