EFF condemns new teaching bill, warns against five years jail threat for unpaid practicing fees

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has strongly rejected the Teaching Professionals Bill, which proposes jail terms of up to five years for teachers who fail to pay annual practicing fees.

Party president, Kasonde Mwenda, expressed outrage over the UPND government’s law, which mandates that every teacher, whether employed or unemployed, pay the practicing license fee every year.

Under the current law, teachers are only required to renew every three years.

“But now, the UPND wants to milk them annually, and those who cannot afford it will not just lose their licenses but could face up to five years in prison if found teaching,” Mwenda said in a statement issued in Lusaka on Monday.

Mwenda described the Bill as a brutal assault on teachers and, by extension, an attack on the future of Zambia’s children.

“Imagine this cruelty: a teacher who sacrifices daily for the nation, already overworked and underpaid, standing before 100 pupils in a classroom, is now told, ‘Pay us every year or go to jail,’” he said.

He further alleged that the Bill amounted to extortion and the criminalization of poverty, calling it a death sentence for the education system.

“Teachers are the backbone of this country, torchbearers of knowledge shaping every doctor, engineer, farmer, and leader. Yet instead of honoring them, the government seeks to humiliate and punish them,” Mwenda said.

He described the measure as a “tax on poverty, a tax on service, a tax on the very people who hold our children’s future in their hands.”

Read More: Hichilema shrugs off criticism over consistent repeat of attires, warns illegal miners of tough action

Mwenda criticized the government for targeting teachers at a time when they were underpaid, classrooms overcrowded, and children forced to sit on floors due to a lack of desks.

He called for the immediate withdrawal of the Bill and urged the government to instead raise teachers’ salaries to dignified levels and recruit more educators to end the scandal of one teacher for 100 pupils.

“The government should provide resources and infrastructure to strengthen education, not weaken it,” he added.

“If the UPND insists on pushing this anti-people Bill forward, let it be known: the EFF will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with teachers in every corner of this country,” Mwenda stated.

WARNING! All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express permission from ZAMBIA MONITOR.