The Public Service Commission (PSC) is set to recruit 5 000 teachers in 2024 as the Government seeks to reduce the teacher-to-pupil ratio from 1:45 towards the target of 1:35.
Speaking to The Herald, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Torerayi Moyo said the Government doesn’t have the financial capacity to recruit all unemployed teachers sitting at home. He said:
We wait for allocation from the fiscus as the Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion looks at the Budget for a particular year and he can tell us how many teachers are going to be absorbed.
From next year, we are going to recruit 5 000, but we can’t absorb all of them who are at home.
Let’s do domestic mobilisation. Then the national cake when it expands more people will be recruited, but now we are limited by resources, that’s the limiting factor.
Unemployed teachers are supposed to register with the PSC and their districts.
In September this year, the Government recruited 2 500 teachers, but this was not enough to meet the demand as the country has a shortage of 25 000 teachers.
Speaking during the 2024 pre-budget presentation in Parliament in September, Moyo said the Ministry plans to decentralise the recruitment of teachers to the provincial and district levels, with the approval of the Public Service Commission.
Zimbabwe has a deficit of 2 800 schools, and Moyo said they are looking for public-private partnerships to fund the construction of new schools.
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