Kassim Majaliwa

The government has refuted claims that it failed to pay subsistence and disturbance allowances to teachers deployed in different primary and secondary schools, prompting complaints and protests from them.

The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Regional Administration and Local Governments (education) Kasimu Majaliwa refuted the reports as unfounded when responding to a basic question by special seat MP Mhonga Ruhwanya (Chadema).

The legislator had wanted to know why the government recently deployed teachers and abandoned them.

The deputy minister said the government deployed 24,431 teachers, 11,243 of them for primary schools and 13,188 for secondary schools during the first phase in January this year.

“About 7.3bn/- was allocated to cover seven-day allowances for them to report at their working stations,” he said, adding that the teachers were required to report at their schools where the remaining amount was already disbursed to cover costs for three days.

Majaliwa claimed that some teachers failed to get their allowance on time because they reported at their stations without the required certificates while others delayed to present reliable fare tickets for refund.

The deputy minister said the government is committed to addressing shortage of teachers in schools by advising private and public colleges to increase admissions.

However the instruction to schools to employ teachers graduating from colleges and universities for both primary and secondary schools has been encouraged.

Meanwhile the government has urged parents to not pay any school contribution announced by school masters without their consent.

Deputy Minister was responding to a supplementary question by Namtumbo MP Vita Kawawa (CCM) said all contributions requested by schools should have been agreed to by parents.

He said when the school faces financial deficit; it needs to consult its council before requesting any financial help from students or parents.

The legislator had asked as to why public schools were introducing a number of contributions without consulting parents.