By Dr Takavafira Zhou
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News if The South) – There is growing misrepresentation of the current impasse between gvt and teachers. *Only the voices of teachers* can clearly delineate the problem of all problems and the evil of all evils facing teachers.
*The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Cain Matema* assumes everything is rosy in schools with 29% of teachers teaching examination classes which in essence is a lie.
*At worst minister Matema* thinks teachers are stubborn cry babies who must report for work or risk being replaced by 10000 and now 25000 lumpen teachers.
*A number of journalists* report that teachers are on strike which is not accurate
*President Mnangagwa* reportedly claimed that teachers are holding the country in ransom which is at best unfortunate and at worst a misrepresentation of facts.
*Some gvt officials* have also threatened to employ the principle of ‘no work no pay’ which again is inapplicable to the challenges teachers are facing.
*President Mnangagwa* is alleged to have threatened to deploy soldiers to schools to replace teachers.
*Political propagandists and many masquarading as employees in the President’s office* have also been belting and berating teacher union leaders and teachers with threats of arrests and dismissals.
*We want to make it categorically clear* without any equivocation or ambiguity that teachers are not on strike. They are patriotic and want to report for work but *are incapacitated* and have health and safety concerns emanating from covid pandemic that must be addressed as a matter of urgency. It is the *state that has incapacitated teachers* by reducing their salaries from *US$550 in October 2018 to the current US$40-US$50.* This reduction totally eroded the *purchasing power parity of teachers’ salaries.*
Worse still gvt has entrenched discrepancies between teachers and other workers by awarding other workers salaries that treble and even quadruple teachers’ salaries. Such preferential treatment dubbed ‘Presidential prerogative’ by George Charamba is a threat to harmonious civil-military relations, security and equity.
Fundamentally, teachers earn a salary ranging from $4000 to $5000 after the recent 40% so called Cost of Living Adjustment which they never asked for. It is therefore prudent for gvt to show how this starvation wage can cover the following expenses by a teacher’s family:
1. *Accommodation* for a three bedroomed house for a family of six more so taking cognisance of the fact that one room now cost an average of US$35. A family of six needs US$240 for accommodation.
2. *Food for a family of of six* requires no less than US$50
3. *School Fees* for boarding schools has increased to between US$250 and US$600
4. *Funeral policies* like Nyaradzo have increased contributions to $2400 (US$24). It is noteworthy that our family of six has 4 children two of whom, under normal circumstances, are in secondary education or alternatively one is in University thereby implying that a family needs about US$500 to US$1200 for only two children per term. With the starvation wages earned by teachers one wonders how teachers must carter for the educational needs of their kids.
5. *Medical Aid* like Psmas has increased charges and shortfalls while all medication is now sold in foreign currency.
6. *Electricity and water bills* now cost an average of US$40 ($4000) per month for a family of six.
7. *Many Teachers* had relocated to their respective homes during the covid 19 induced closure of schools and with transport now charged in forex their transport costs are as high as US$50-US$70 which they cannot access legally and even illegally.
Our humble submission is for gvt to show us how the peanuts we get can be budgeted to meet the bearest minimum a teacher requeires in terms of food, accommodation, school fees, transport costs, utility bills and medical aid. Put succinctly, teachers are grossly incapacitated with the consequent failure to report for work. In their poverty, their quest to survive is also real, yet more than 80% of schools in Zimbabwe have no covid abatement equipment. We challenge Minister Matema to be honest and tell the nation where the $600 million earmarked for schools has gone. In the absence of evidence of schools that have benefited and accountability of the disbursement, we can safely conclude that the money found its way in private pockets. There are thousands of schools without a simple source of water where drilling of boreholes is long overdue.
Dismissal of incapacitated teachers is not a panacea to the challenges teachers are facing. Above all teachers would resist that dismissal legally and by all other democratic means possible. Deployment of soldiers to teach in schools would be professionally suicidal as soldiers’ basic function is to defend the territorial integrity of the nation as opposed to educational vandalism. At any rate at the current rate of about 45000 density it entails that if this suicidal approach is followed about 4 soldiers would be deployed at a school which is insignificant.
We also do not want to salivate at the poisoned incentive carrots. We, therefore, advice parents to allow us to resolve our labour issues with our employer. Once the issues are resolved we will be back to teach with vigour and enthusiam. We want to tell the nation at large that we thought the labour issues between teachers and gvt could be solved quickly. However, it seems gvt is preparing for a war of attrition whose effects will affect students more than teachers. We, therefore, encourage parents and students to try to amplify teachers’ voices of reason with the gvt.
As professionals nearer to those in the classrooms, we want to reiterate that we are not against re-opening of schools but against failure to take professional advice by ministry officials and a facade of lies fed to cabinet on the level of preparedness in schools. It is our conviction that a nation cannot create a veritable educational system on the basis of a facade of lies but truth and credible planning. We also want to state that the welfare of educators is critical for innovation and dynamism needed for Agenda 2030 in order to achieve quality public education panctuated by life serving skills. Sadly, gvt is presiding over the fall of teachers from grace to grass with monotonous regularity.
Conversely, incapacitation is real and unless gvt commits itself to capacitate teachers, there is no miracle that can drive them to schools. The best the gvt can do is to accept the challenge teachers are facing and dialogue on how best the challenge can be ameliorated. To assume that teachers can leave their own children at home and teach other people’s children in boarding schools is to ask for too much from teachers. Although teachers are poor they still have their brains and such brains would not allow them to offer services that their own children cannot access because of their poverty. No amount of threats would capacitate teachers. Rather the gvt must capacitate teachers so that they can report for work. We remain open for meaningful and truthful dialogue in order to entrench a credible system of education in Zimbabwe. As professionals, we call for fair labour practice and treatment of teachers in a more humane manner as opposed to treatment in a degrading, callous and servitude manner.
Venceremos
Dr Takavafira M. Zhou (Ptuz President)
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