Education ministry has 160 vacancies � Parley hears

Pini Bothoko | Tuesday April 4, 2017 17:07

He disclosed this yesterday following a question from specially elected Member of Parliament (MP) Mephato Reatile who had wanted to know the total number of vacant posts under education Ministry and to provide the breakdown by departments and districts.

Reatile also wanted to know the total number of temporary employees engaged to acquire experience and the challenges that cause delays in filling the vacant posts.

Madigela told Parliament that his Ministry has five departments and the vacancy rate as at March 31 stood at 160. He said the majority of the vacancies are in the Department of Teacher Training and Technical Education with 123 vacancies.

“Corporate Services has 19 vacancies, the Department of Tertiary Education Financing has 12 posts whilst the Department of Radiation Protection Inspectorate has two posts and Department of Research, Science and Technology has four posts,” Madigela said.

He said all the vacancies at district levels fall under the Department of Teacher Training and Technical Education, which oversees both colleges of education and technical colleges.

Madigela said there are a total of 149 temporary employees engaged by the ministry and these are not necessarily for purposes of acquiring experience but for various reasons.

He said 20 temporary teachers have been engaged to stand in for substantive officers who are on leave, that is either on study leave or unpaid leave.

He said 40 temporary employees have been earmarked for outsourcing under cleaning services, five for security services, four for grounds maintenance and six for labouring services.

He said the remaining 74 temporary employees are engaged to offer programmes where there are no lectures.

Madigela stated that the process of filling the vacancies is not necessarily delayed, but the Ministry experiences some challenges in filling them.

He said most of the vacancies being 123 of them are for technical colleges and they are unable to attract and retain staff in some specialised fields such as positions in the area of jewellery design, heavy plant, geometrics, hair and beauty therapy, automotive technology among others.

He said the Ministry is in a transition phase having been established on October 1, 2016 as part of the rationalisation of portfolio responsibilities.