736 health slots remain vacant in Tanzania for lack of qualified candidates

Dar es Salaam. The government has failed to get qualified Tanzanians to fill 736 advertised vacancies in the health sector.

The vacancies are part of 7,612 advertised positions by the President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government (PO-RALG) early this year following a recruitment permit from President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

The Head of State also issued 9,800 recruitment permits for teachers for both primary and secondary schools in the country.

Addressing the media in Dodoma yesterday, the PO-RALG minister, Mr Innocent Bashungwa said 6,876 qualified Tanzanians have been picked to fill vacancies in the sector.

“We couldn’t get qualified candidates to fill 736 positions in the sector,” said the minister.

He outlined the professions and respective number of required workers in brackets are; dental surgeons (50), dental officers (43), assistant medical officers (244), radiologists (86) and nursing attendants (313).

Mr Bashungwa, who doubles as Karagwe Constituency legislator, said unfilled vacancies will be re-advertised in future in order to get qualified applicants to fill the positions.

He said of the 6,876 recruited Tanzanians in the health sector, 3,217, which is equivalent to 46.8 percent are female while 3,659 (53.2 percent) are males.

According to him, 42 others who correspond to 0.61 percent are employees with disabilities.

Regarding employment in the education sector, Mr Bashungwa said all the 9,800 vacancies have been filled including 5,000 posts for primary and 4,800 secondary school teachers.

“Of the 5,000 primary school teachers, 2,353 equals 47.06 percent are female, while 2,647 equivalent to 52.9 percent are male,” said Mr Bashungwa.

“Likewise, of the 4,800 employed secondary school teachers; 1,289, which is equivalent to 26.85 percent, are female, while 3,511 (73.15 percent) are male,” he added.

According to him, 76 percent of the 4,800, recruited secondary school teachers are those specialised in science and that 261 (2.66 percent) are teachers with disabilities.

He instructed recruited public servants to report to executive directors of councils in their respective work stations carrying with them National Identification Authority (Nida) IDs or identification numbers.

“They should also possess original birth certificates, academic and profession certificates for verifications before being handed employment letters,” he said.

“Employers should collect the certificates and submit them to the National Examinations Council of Tanzania for verifications and report to the ministry of Education, Science and Technology submission of bogus certificates in order for legal actions to take its course,” he added.

He instructed employers to ensure that new recruited staff are given employment letters and report to respective working stations.

The minister warned that legal actions would be extended to newly employed workers who will collect allowances, but abscond from reporting at the respective work stations.

“Those who will not report at respective work stations for 14 days from the date of this advertisement, will be replaced,” said Mr Bashungwa.

Regarding the recruitment process, he said the ministry received a total of 165,948 applications, 123,390 for teaching and 42,558 for health professions.

According to him, while 95,168 applicants are male, 70,780 are female.

Furthermore, Mr Bashungwa said in order to smoothen the process, PO-RALG formed a special taskforce to analyse applications composed of officials from different government institutions.

“Servants’ allocations in the two sectors based on employees’ demand in the councils especially after completing construction of health centres, dispensaries, primary and secondary school classrooms,” he said.