Government in moves to avert teacher strike

Zimonline
By Patricia Mpofu
Thursday 30 April 2009

HARARE – Education Minister David Coltart will meet union leaders on Thursday to try to avert a strike by teachers when schools open for the second term next week.

Coltart, who took the education portfolio after the former opposition MDC parties agreed to join President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party in a unity government last February — managed to persuade teachers to return to classrooms in March to end a strike that had been going on since last year and had brought public education to a halt.

But Coltart’s efforts to raise more cash from donors to pay teachers appear to have not borne fruit and unions that agreed to call off the strike last March on condition the government would hike the US$100 monthly allowance given to teachers and all civil servants earlier this week threatened to call a fresh strike by teachers.

Coltart told ZimOnline he will meet teacher’s representatives today, adding that several donors, whose names he did not disclose, had indicated they might consider helping the government with money for teacher’s salaries.

He said: “We will be meeting tomorrow (Thursday) with the biggest teacher’s unions in the country as the government continues to find solutions to the problems in the education sector. A number of donors and well-wishers have indicated willingness to help us.”

The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), the two unions for teachers in the country, confirmed they would meet Coltart today.

“He (Coltart) is reporting back on his efforts to look for resources from international donors. He is likely to give us a feed back on his mission,” said Sifiso Ndlovu, the chief executive officer of ZIMTA.

In a separate interview, PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said: “Our members have indicated they would not be going back to school on May 5 when the second term begins. So we hope and pray the minister has found resources to meet some of our demands.”

Teachers want to be paid a minimum US$2 300 per month, money the government does not have.
Very little learning took place at public schools in 2008 as teachers spent the better part of the year striking for more pay or sitting at home because could not afford bus fare to work on their meagre salaries.

The collapse of the education sector along with that of the public health system have come to symbolise the decayed state of Zimbabwe’s key infrastructure and institutions after a decade of acute recession.

The power-sharing government has promised to revive the once brilliant economy and to restore basic services such as health and education.

But the success of the Harare administration hinges on its ability to raise financial support from rich Western countries that have however said they will not immediately help until they are convinced Mugabe is committed to genuinely share power with his former opposition foes.