Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is one ministry
in Malawi that rarely is on the media spotlight for good reasons. True to that,
there seems to be developing, as of now, some news of great miscalculation of
priorities in the ministry—the 2013/14 teacher recruitment process.
In its Press Release in the local press in the month of
February 2013, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) through
Teaching Service Commission (TSC) informed all serving and non-serving diploma
and degree holders with majors in either Languages or Sciences of the existence
of vacancies in the ministry.
Qualifying job applicants applied, the shortlisting was done,
and now the interviews have almost started. The content of press release has
scared quiet many; some discussed the fate of humanities teachers at length,
and still some warned that the 2013/14 teacher recruitment process is a
‘warning shot’ of the closure of teacher-manufacturing faculties in public and
private colleges and universities as no market will be readily available to
absorb them.
As a matter of clarification, two issues are of special
interest in the 2013/14 TSC teacher recruitment process, namely; the sidelining
of humanities teachers and the missing of names of education degree holders in
the shortlist.
This year, for the first time in the history of Malawi,
teachers have been trained and cannot all be employed by their trainer. It has
long been believed that the education profession is the easy road to
employment; but that belief should change now and really now as there are now
enough qualified teachers in public secondary schools in Malawi. If in doubt
about this statement, ask TSC.
All teachers who majored in humanities have their services
thrown to the dog as MoEST sees nothing worthwhile in them, if not for good at
least in this 2013/14 year. Recognizing the waywardness in this thinking, MoEST
through TSC is said to have shortlisted some of the humanities majors who still
applied despite TSC’s uncalled for ‘ban’.
Whilst one can appreciate the logic in the TSC’s
language-and-sciences-only press release as being motivated by the ministry’s
sciences-dominated change of the secondary school curriculum, it makes little
sense, if any at all, as to the fate of the humanities education students in
public higher education institutions. This becomes much of a big problem given
the historical fact that those that study education in government colleges and
universities enjoy open entry into the education system as teachers.
While TSC’s ‘ban’ on humanities majors is regrettable, the
missing of names of education degree holders in its shortlist of candidates is
greatly deplorable. It is widely bemoaned among the applying candidates that
certain names of people holding degrees in education majoring in languages and
sciences have their names missing.
TSC says it shortlisted all languages and sciences applicants
adding that those whose names are not on the list either did not apply or their
application did not reach TSC. Fine and good. Though still, one wonders as to
how it is the case that most of the names missing on the list are of holders of
education degree in the languages and sciences TSC is looking for.
Those that have paid close attention to the list blame TSC
for doing a bad job as they say that the list is full of non-education degree
holders. Given, all degree holders are arguably the same in terms of
understanding of secondary school curriculum content. However, delivery of
content, especially as informed by methodology, education degree holders are
way better than non-education degree holders.
Is it not common sense that it is almost impossible, if not
certainly so, for an educationist to outclass a lawyer in matters to do with
law. Similarly, it is doubtful that a bachelor of science majoring in
Mathematics or a bachelor of arts majoring in language can outperform a
bachelor of education science or a bachelor of education language respectively.
They both may know the content, but delivering the content demands more than
just a degree.
TSC may have had good reasons, but if it is true that indeed
TSC has shortlisted non-education degree holders to the exclusion of applying
education holders, then one the Malawi nation has all the right reasons to
believe that the 2013/14 teacher recruitment process is a serious edu-caution. And
should TSC proceed as above, there will be no doubt that MoEST’s 2013/14
teacher recruitment process is a tragedy.
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