Thousands of Teachers cry foul over unpaid salaries

The Standard
By Caiphas Chimhete
25 October 2009

THOUSANDS of school teachers who rejoined the profession following the dollarisation of the economy in February are still to receive their salaries, almost nine months after they were readmitted. Teachers who spoke to The Standard last week said they were living in poverty and were contemplating quitting the profession altogether.

They said they were spending their meagre savings shuttling from district to provincial offices trying to get their salaries.

“I now spend more time on the bus travelling to Harare than in the classroom with the children,” said one teacher from Checheche in Chipinge district, over 500 km from Harare.

The teacher, who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation, was in Harare last week seeking clarification from the Ministry of Education head office.

Two of the country’s major teachers’ unions last week confirmed that thousands of their members from across the country were still battling to get their salaries.

The unions said the problem had mostly affected teachers in rural schools.

Oswald Madziwa, the national co-ordinator of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said an estimated 8 000 teachers have not been paid since readmission in February.

“The problem is quite big,” Madziwa said. “We may not have the exact figures but we estimate that close to 8 000 teachers have not been paid even though they started teaching.”

Earlier this year the government gave a blanket amnesty allowing teachers who had left the profession to rejoin.

But Madziwa said the Ministry of Education had since changed the readmission regulations insisting on a thorough security vetting, medical examination, and submission of six application letters and copies of educational certificates.

Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu also confirmed that many teachers who had reapplied were still to be paid.

He said the readmission process was “too cumbersome”.

Of the 1 975 Zimta members who are seeking readmission only 448 have managed to rejoin the profession, he said.

This means the rest are not receiving their salaries although they have been deployed to different schools.

“This is indicative that the readmission process is cumbersome and frustrating to those willing to rejoin the profession,” Ndlovu said.

“What it means is that we will continue to have unqualified teachers manning our schools and this will affect the quality of our education.”

Madziwa said “only a handful” of teachers have been readmitted back into the profession although about 17 000 teachers have applied to rejoin.

About 30 000 teachers left the profession during the past two years seeking greener pastures in countries such as Botswana and South Africa.

Madziwa said: “Morale is very low and teachers are absenting themselves from work visiting Ministry’s offices trying to rectify the problem.”

Ndlovu suggested the relaxation of the rejoining requirements as well as decentralisation of the readmission process.

“The problem is because only one person is empowered to give a nod and that is the permanent secretary and that creates bottlenecks because he is a busy man. I suggest the decentralisation of the process,” he said.

Senator David Coltart, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture said he wrote to his acting Permanent Secretary Lysias Bowora last week instructing him to complete the exercise before the end of the month.

“I know of the problems and I have written to the Acting Perm Sec to speed up the process.

“I hope this will be done,” said Coltart.

Coltart said the problem arose after the Public Service Commission (PSC) reinstated the rigorous readmission process despite the fact that he had waived it.

Apart from that, Coltart said his ministry had a serious shortage of staff.

“Our staffing level is only 68% and it’s very difficult to complete the process as well as work on other issues,” he said.

Efforts to get a comment from the PSC chairman Dr Mariyawanda Nzuwah were fruitless last week.

Zimbabwe’s education system was the envy of many on the African continent for many years before it collapsed due to the economic meltdown.

Over the past five years teachers have been holding intermittent strikes demanding better pay and improved working conditions.