Party leader, Kalaba, calls for teacher recruitment to be aligned with classroom demand

Citizens First (CF) party president, Harry Kalaba, has urged the government to align teacher recruitment with actual classroom needs across the country, saying such planning would enable the absorption of trained teachers where shortages persisted and help reduce excessive class sizes.

In an interview with Zambia Monitor, Kalaba said deployment policies must also consider family stability and ensure that teachers assigned to hardship areas received adequate support.

“Teachers are the backbone of any nation’s future, yet in Zambia too many are being asked to carry impossible burdens,” he said.

Kalaba noted that despite a large number of trained teachers seeking employment, many remained jobless for years, while those already serving faced mounting pressure with insufficient support.

He added that some teachers were deployed far from their families, often separated from spouses for long periods, without relocation assistance or salary adjustments.

Others sent to rural areas, he claimed, lacked adequate housing, transport and hardship incentives, despite the high cost of working in remote communities.

“These sacrifices are real, but they are not being matched with fair compensation or improved working conditions,” he said.

Kalaba highlighted growing classroom overcrowding as a major concern, stating that some teachers were handling more than 100 pupils in a single class, making meaningful instruction nearly impossible.

“Teachers in overcrowded or rural schools receive the same pay and benefits as those teaching far smaller classes in more conducive environments,” he added.

He attributed the situation to what he described as a rushed approach to fulfilling political promises without sufficient planning to safeguard education quality.

Kalaba said the CF party believes the challenges are solvable through “practical, targeted reforms,” including fair workload recognition, deployment of support staff and improved resource allocation.

“Investing in teachers is not a charity case; it’s securing our children’s education. A country that values its teachers invests directly in its own future,” he said.

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