Kholwani Nyathi and Rutendo Mawere
20 December 2008
Harare — ZIMBABWE'S teachers are demanding at least US$2,200 a month before they resume work, fuelling fears 2009 could be another wasted year for the education sector already weighed down by an unprecedented staff exodus.
The Zimbabwe Teachers' Association (ZIMTA) has taken the unprecedented step of presenting their salary demands to President Robert Mugabe saying they "feared for the worst".
The school attendance rate had already fallen to 20 % by last term from 85% in 2007 as a result of the prolonged job action by teachers and the mounting political and economic uncertainty, a December United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) report reveals.
Analysts say primary and secondary schools lost 70% learning time after teachers started boycotting work in March protesting against poor pay and the political intimidation ahead of the June 27 presidential election run-off.
Prospects that the situation would improve next term have been dampened by the prolonged delays in the formation of a new government, analysts said. "The outlook is gloomy," said ZIMTA acting chief executive officer, Sifiso Ndlovu, who confirmed the latest demands by teachers.
"If the political environment does not change in the few coming days, schools are unlikely to reopen next term." Teacher organisations estimate that up to 30 000 teachers resigned from government to seek employment in neighbouring countries while others turned to the informal sector as the authorities continued to ignore pleas for better pay.
The staff exodus resulted in the massive shutdown of mainly rural schools and the trend is likely to continue next year. Galloping inflation also forced schools to close earlier than usual as budgets for the term were wiped out in a matter of days and parents began suffocating under the dollarisation of the economy.
ZIMTA and the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) - the two biggest teacher organisations - say barring a "miraculous" turnaround in the country's economic and political situation, the education sector would ground to a halt next year.
In its proposals made early this month, ZIMTA warned that without foreign currency denominated salaries, the remaining 100 000 teachers would continue with their job boycott. They said the absence of a government since March had forced them to direct their demands to the President's Office.
This month the least paid teacher was paid an average of $12 billion, which translated to about US$10 on the parallel market. "Teachers will not go back to school as long as their salaries are not in foreign currency," said Aswald Madziva, the PTUZ national co-ordinator.
Towards the end of last term parents with access to foreign currency began contributing, providing incentives for teachers but analysts warned the intervention would not be sustainable.
They said the move would force more children out of school as private institutions could accommodate only a few. "Trust schools will certainly open next year because for the past four years we have emphasised that teachers are the most important factor in moulding our products," said Jameson Timbe, the chairman of the Association of Trust Schools (AST), "and as such the responsible authorities should make sure they are taken care of." "But as a result of the economic and political crisis in the country the majority of our public schools will not be re-opening."
Timbe said although there could be some Zimbabweans with free funds, private schools could only absorb a limited number of children. "It is unfortunate that trust schools only represent plus or minus one percent of the total population of school going children," he said. "At the moment demand for private education far exceeds capacity." Ndlovu said besides poor pay and deteriorating working conditions, the relentless political violence continued to force teachers to flee their schools.
Zanu PF supporters targeted teachers in rural areas in the run up to the election run-off accusing them of supporting Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who beat President Robert Mugabe during the first round of the presidential election.
"Although we are still collecting figures the indications are that we lost an average of three teachers per school, which gives us a figure of 30 000 teachers a school," Madziva said. Stephen Mahere, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture was not available for comment last week as he was said to be out of the office.
Unicef said the crisis in the education sector had also been exacerbated by the dire humanitarian situation in country, as children were now required to assist parents in looking for food or conducting income generating activities. The crisis spread to universities and colleges this year as lecturers embarked on a series of strikes demanding better working conditions.
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