DC orders immediate suspension of teacher

Handeni. The District Commissioner of Handeni, Mr Godwin Gondwe, has ordered the department of primary education to suspend a teacher at Kwankoje Primary School after he allegedly found him drunk during working hours.

Mr Gondwe said this, when he visited the school yesterday to supply cassava seeds and during the handing over ceremony the teacher showed up to greet the DC, while he was apparently drunk.

After the DC realised that the teacher was drunk he asked why he came to work, while he was drunk during working hours something he said was against professional ethics.

“How come a teacher comes drunk and teaches schoolchildren and no action is taken against him. I don’t want to hear that he comes to work in this particular condition,” he said.

In his response the teacher said he had been suspended from work following his request to be promoted before the department of education since 2013.

He said he was surprised that he was ordered to report and sign to his work station daily and received his salary, but no action had been taken against him.

“It is now three years, I get my salary, but I’m still in the dark about my future. No one is telling me anything, whether I’m fired or not,” he said.

For his part, the head of school, Mr Baraka Chiwamba, said the teacher had been working for nine years and he found him ready suspended by the previous administration and so the case wasn’t his to solve, but it was rather for the district management.

The district deputy education officer of primary education, Mr Selemani Mtinda, said his office was aware of the case, but it was handed over to the Public Service Commission for further action.