Stakeholders in the education sector have welcomed the move by the Ministry of Education to redeploy administrators in both primary and secondary schools nationwide.
National Action for Quality Education in Zambia (NAQEZ) Executive Director Aaron Chansa said the exercise of transferring headteachers in public schools is long overdue.
“Keeping school managers at one station for too long has terrible academic effects because in most cases, such officers tend to treat public schools as their personal properties,” Mr. Chansa said.
Mr. Chansa said the trend of keeping headteachers at the same school for a long time does not promote innovation but rather encourages personalisation of public properties, inefficiency, mediocrity, breeding of poor leadership and poor learning outcomes.
“We want this exercise to be done to educational teachers, Heads of Departments (HoDs), senior teachers and Deputy Headteachers as well at both district and provincial level,” he said.
He appealed to government to not let headteachers stay at the same station for more than seven years.
Mr. Chansa further appealed to government to come up with a teacher policy which will structure the recruitment, transfers, retention and promotion of teachers in the country.
Meanwhile, Zambia National Education Coalition (ZANEC) Executive Director George Hamusunga said management plays a major role in the performance of learners in schools, saying that how schools are runned, determine how learners perform.
“Managers are responsible for ensuring that they monitor the performance of teachers for quality service delivery in schools,” Mr. Hamusunga said.
Mr. Hamusunga said that the movement by government through the ministry of education will enhance the quality of education in the country.
However, Mr. Hamusunga is of the view that the move might not be effective because certain administrators or teachers who fail to deliver at one school, might also fail at another school where they are sent to.
“Hope they have identified the gaps in those headteachers and will provide training to ensure effectiveness in their operations,” he said.
He further said that the exercise should not disadvantage schools to which headteachers who are deemed ineffective are going to be sent to.