MPs told not to gamble with children’s education

Education Minister Nick Kuman is appealing to MPs not to gamble with children’s education by distancing teachers involved in last year’s national elections.
“Back in the provinces throughout the country MPs are not allowing the teachers back into classrooms due to their political differences,” Kuman said.
“And because of political differences, children are not getting the required education that they deserve.”
Kuman admitted they were facing teacher shortage throughout the country.
“Yes, I must agree that we do have problems. We have 56,000 teachers. And the teaching staff is about 10 per cent less meaning that only 46,000 are in class. A lot of these teachers after the 2017 election, due to politics involved in the provinces, are on the streets.
“My position is simple. I don’t want to see teachers on the streets. They must be on the payroll and in classes. So, please, MPs in the provinces and districts, you must not play politics with our children.
“Let’s be fair and honest so that our teachers who are not in school must be back in school and they must take up teaching responsibilities in the province.
“I admit that we have teacher shortage in the country and the teachers that we have are not enough to cater for the 2.2million children in our schools. We need teachers for primary, secondary and vocational schools.”
Kuman said that they have 85,000 teaching positions of which 56,000 are filled.
“And for the end of this Parliament’s term by 2022, we must train at least 24,000 teachers. But we don’t have the capacity in those teachers’ colleges to produce the required teachers. That’s why Prime Minister Peter O’Neill announced in recent parliament sittings that we have to put a lot of emphasis in building up our capacity in our teacher training colleges. Over the next four years a college is producing 200 teachers per year and over time we should see a 1000 per year so we can meet the demand.