The Teaching Council of Zambia (TCZ) has closed down 17 colleges of education on the Copperbelt.

TCZ says it is in the process of closing down thirty-five Colleges of Education that were found to be operating illegally, as they abrogated the Teaching Profession Act (No. 5 of 2013) that requires that all colleges of education must be registered with the Teaching Council of Zambia.

TCZ public relations officer Ngoza Mulonga said this after concluding the second inspection of colleges in Kitwe, Tuesday afternoon.

“The Council commenced country-wide compliance inspections in March this year (2018), and shall be spread to all the remaining public and private colleges of education in all the ten provinces. The Compliance Inspections team has so far visited seventeen (17) districts countrywide in five provinces. The following are the statistics of the illegal colleges of education for each province visited; Copperbelt (17), Southern (7), Central (3), Lusaka (5) and North-Western (3),” Malonga said.

“We also wish to advise Parents, Students and Members of the public to look out for the full list of accredited colleges of education in the daily tabloids and our official website. Additionally, the Teaching Council of Zambia would love to remind school authorities and Student teachers that it remains a requirement for all enrolled students in any College of Education to be registered with the Council by paying one hundred Kwacha fifty Ngwee (K100.50.).”

She said no student was expected to undertake teaching practice without the authority letter from the council.

“Therefore, no student is supposed to undertake teaching practice without the authority letter from the Council or the Student Teaching Experience Authority (STEA). The Teaching Council of Zambia values the support we keep receiving from teachers, student teachers and other stakeholders in an effort to fully operationalize the Council and bring sanity to the Teaching profession.”