Zimonline
By Nqobizitha Khumalo
Saturday 23 May 2009
BULAWAYO – More than 20 000 teachers left Zimbabwe over the past two years alone, disgruntled by poor salaries and working conditions, Education Minister David Coltart said on Friday.
Coltart, who has worked hard to try to revive Zimbabwe’s once envied public education sector, also lamented dilapidated infrastructure at most public schools after years of under funding and neglect.
“Zimbabwe has over the last two years staring in 2007 lost over 20 000 teachers who left due to poor salaries and working conditions and the government is working to rectify that problem as we want to return Zimbabwe’s education status to the level of the 90s,†Coltart said, addressing school heads and senior education officials in the country’s second largest city of Bulawayo.
Coltart urged the private sector to step in and help the government repair schools, saying that the revitalisation of education should be the concern of every citizen.
“The infrastructure at schools is collapsing and the restoration of our education to where it was should be a concern of every Zimbabwean and the private sector must join government in giving every member of society a chance to get education,†he said.
Coltart said last year’s senior school public examinations whose results have been delayed because of a shortage of funds were being processed and would be out soon.
Since taking over as minister, Coltart has managed to reach agreement and create a working relation over salaries with the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ).
The collapse of the education sector along with that of the public health system reflects the decayed state of Zimbabwe’s key infrastructure and institutions after a decade of acute recession.
A unity government formed last February by President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has promised to revive the economy and to restore health, education and other basic services.
But the administration’s failure to mobilise substantial financial support from rich Western countries could hinder its national reconstruction programme.