CIVIL servants, particularly teachers, should stop asking for transfers from rural areas to urban centres as this creates understaffing in rural schools, Southern Province Minister Edify Hamukale warned yesterday.

Dr Hamukale said that the trend of asking for transfers was most common among teachers and that it was affecting service delivery in the rural schools.

“I am disappointed by some teachers deployed to teach at rural schools who ask for transfers to urban schools,” Dr Hamukale said in a statement yesterday.

He said it was indiscipline for the teachers in rural to request for transfers to urban schools and that the trend was causing understaffing in rural schools and overstaffing in urban schools.

“Teachers are not the only government workers in rural areas. We have agriculture officers, veterinary officers, forestry officers, nurses and others who never complain or leave rural areas,” he said.

Dr. Hamukale said this behavior must stop or such teachers risked being replaced.