HARARE Education Minister David Coltart has said his ministry plans to computerise its database for teachers in the country in a bid to weed out ghost workers. (Pictured: Education Minister David Coltart)
Coltart, who has discussed the plan with teachers unions, said the unions support the plan and were eager to see public funds used to pay people who were actually working in the countrys schools and not ghost workers. The union leaders (wanted to know) expressed what measures could be taken by the ministry to cut down on ghost workers. We explored a variety of options and came up with an idea of listing all the teachers in a database managed by the ministry, said Coltart.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu said the union supported the plan to keep a computer based of list of teachers in schools. That is a welcome development in the management of human resources in the Ministry. By moving away from the old system of administration the Ministry will ensure that there are no ghost workers prejudicing government of lots of money, said Ndlovu.
The plan by Coltart to compile a record of teachers working in public schools comes as the government is in the process of auditing the civil service to establish the number of genuine public workers, amid reports that there could be as many as 20 000 ghost workers among the civil service that is estimated at around 300 000 employees.
Post published in: News