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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
THOUSANDS of unemployed qualified teachers may have been victims of a hoax circulating on social media that the Government will embark on a massive recruitment of teachers tomorrow.

The spokesperson in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Mr Patrick Ziumbo urged literate Zimbabweans to desist from believing every message circulated on social media, especially WhatsApp.

He warned teachers against paying anyone purporting they can assist them to get employed.

The false message is apparently riding on the story in The Sunday Mail over the weekend, in which Primary and Secondary Education Minister Dr Lazarus Dokora said Treasury has given the Civil Service Commission permission to recruit 10 000 qualified teachers when schools open in January.

There are about 25 000 unemployed teachers in Zimbabwe.

A number of people in whatsApp groups yesterday said the advertisement that claimed 7 000 teachers would be recruited countrywide appeared in the Sunday Mail over the weekend.

There is no such advert in the publication.

Scores of teachers called the Chronicle yesterday asking for recruitment logistics.

A majority wanted to travel to Harare where they believed they stood a better chance of being employed.

Mr Ziumbo said his ministry had proper channels of disseminating information to members of the public.

“As a Ministry we don’t communicate through the social media. We don’t communicate through WhatsApp. The message is a hoax and people should not be duped or conned thinking there are other people who can assist them to get employed. We have a system we use to communicate such matters and the message is not coming from us. In any case recruitment is done by the Public Service Commission and not the ministry,” he said.

The social media message read: “There will be a teachers’ recruitment by the Ministry of Education in partnership with Public Service Commission in all provinces on the 30th of December 2016.

“This is being done to rectify the massive shortage of teachers in the schools. This is being done in the fulfilment of the 7 000 teaching jobs promised by Honourable L.T. Dokora Minister of Education. For more information contact 04-771795-7 public Service head office #78 NSSA building 2nd floor J. Nyerere Avenue or 04-779833-8 head office Education # 54 K. Nkrumah avenue Ambassodor (Ambassador) House.”

In the Sunday Mail story, Dr Dokora said at least 10 000 new teachers will be employed at State-run schools in 2017 to improve the teacher-pupil ratio and fill vacancies that arose following the introduction of early childhood development.

A few years ago, Government froze staff recruitment citing unbalanced cash flows that resulted in the bloated workforce gobbling 80 percent of revenue.

“I had a fruitful meeting with Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa, and he is supportive of the education sector,” Dr Dokora is quoted saying.

“When schools open (next term), 10 000 teachers will come on board. The CSC has already been given the green light to recruit.

‘‘About 5 800 new ECD teachers will be engaged in January while 500 will fill vacant posts at primary school level.

‘‘Another 732 will fill vacant posts at secondary school level.’’

Minister Dokora said qualified ECD teachers were on demand following the expansion of lower level education since 2013 and the introduction of the new curriculum.

About 4 000 qualified teachers and university graduates who majored in non-teaching disciplines are tutoring 427 826 ECD pupils.

Latest Government statistics show that 98 263 out of 117 490 practising teachers were trained.

Zimbabwe has 2 374 secondary and 5 805 primary schools with an enrolment of nearly four million.

Minister Dokora said the country’s learning institutions were now manned by 80 percent qualified teachers, with the remainder comprising university and Advanced Level graduates.

Last month, scores of aspiring nurses were turned away by officials at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) after they tried to submit applications following a fake advertisement that circulated on social media.

Some of the applicants had allegedly “bribed” people they believed could help them get employed.

@pchitumba1