Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoEST) has sacked 52 teachers for having love affairs and impregnating their students.
The Ministry’s Public Relations Officer, Rebecca Phwitiko, confirmed this development, adding that the dismissals happened between January 2013 and December 2015.
“These are from several districts but this doesn’t give a true picture of most cases of immoral conduct. The 52 teachers are only those that were dismissed,” she said, adding, “There are other cases that haven’t yet been submitted to Teaching Service Commission (TSC); either because the district level investigation hasn’t been finalised or any other reason.”
Education analysts have since commended government for this development, describing it as a landmark decision.
“This is better than transferring teachers perpetrating sexual abuse of school girls. MoEST has the professional and moral duty to protect the girls of this country from sexual predators who masquerade as teachers,” noted a social policy analyst, Roy Hauya.
He further said the number may sound like tokenism but it is a fair warning to those who may be or would be violators.
He added: “I bet thousands have had relationships with school children.”
Executive Director for Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), Benedicto Kondowe, said his office received lots of reports about teacher-pupil relations but was wondering why they were not being punished.
“I am glad that 52 teachers have been disciplined in this manner. Of course the number of perpetrators is more than that but I assume this is the beginning of it all,” he said.
According to MoEST, if a teacher is suspected to have been having inappropriate relations with a student, a submission is made to the TSC after a thorough investigation by the reporting office, be it district education office or education division office on the alleged cas .
“The Human Resource Directorate in the Ministry of Education ensures that appropriate supporting evidence is available before forwarding a submission to TSC. Evidence includes written reports from the teacher, student, head teacher, school committee and parents,” Phwitiko explained.
She, however, cited contradictions in the given written evidence; refusal by some involved parties to provide evidence, students’ parents and the teacher collaborating to have the teacher marry the student, provision of false information or change of statements and loss of vital information due to lack of adherence to investigation procedures as some of the main challenges to have such cases completed.
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