Claim
On August 27, 2022, the Patriotic Front Facebook page published a statement claiming that only 17,000 teachers have been employed and those teachers that have not been put on the payroll will wait. A Ministry of Education Letter from the District Education Board Secretary addressed to the Newly recruited Teachers in Chitambo district was also attached to the post.
Rating Justification
iVerify Zambia has established as misleading the claim by the Patriotic Front Facebook page that only 17,000 teachers have been employed and that those teachers that have not been put on payroll will wait. According to Ministry of Education recruitment list released in the Zambia Daily Mail Newspaper dated Friday, July 15, 2022, Vol 26 No168, Thirty thousand and four hundred and ninety-six thousand (30,496) teachers were hired by Government and not Seventeen thousand (17,000) as purported by the PF Facebook page. The letter from Chitambo DEBS office posted by the PF page was specifically addressed to the Newly recruited teachers in the District. In the letter, the DEBS states that all newly recruited teachers that had received their August 2022 salaries were to report to the District Education Board Office for deployment. It further stated that, those teachers who did not receive their salaries are requested to wait for a while until their salaries are made available. Ministry of Information and Media Director and Spokesperson Thabo Kawana said on ZNBC 19:00hrs News in Kitwe on August 27, 2022, that “the only teachers who were not paid among the newly recruited ones are those who did not present their bank details.” Mr. Kawana appealed to the affected teachers to quickly submit their bank details so that they could be paid. And in an interview with iVerify Zambia, Ministry of Education public relations officer Annita Nachilima dismissed claims that only 17,000 teachers had been recruited, saying 30,496 teachers had been employed. She also explained that placing of teachers on payroll was a continuous process and assured that all the recruited teachers would be placed on the payroll if they finished undergoing all the required formalities which include submission of their bank details contrary to the PF Facebook page claims that they would have to wait. She said the payroll had a time limit and that for Government, it closed on the 10th of every month. Teachers that were paid had completed all the formalities, she added.
Misleading
