Herald
29 July 2011
GOVERNMENT is considering whether or not incentives for teachers should be scrapped owing to salary increments awarded this month.
Secretary for Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Dr Stephen Mahere said they will first engage teachers unions before scrapping the incentives.
However, Deputy Education Minister Lazarus Dokora says it is too early to scrap them.
Dr Mahere on Tuesday said the Government resolved to abolish incentives to avoid disparities they were causing between urban and rural schools.
A day later, Deputy Minister Dokora told Parliament it was too early to scrap the incentives.
He was responding to questions from MPs during the question-and-answer session in the House of Assembly.
Following the latest increases, teachers’ now earn US$320 from US$160 per month.
In rural areas, incentives vary between zero and US$20 while those for their counterparts in urban areas range between US$60 and US$120 or more per month.
Some teachers in peri-urban and other areas such as Epworth are not getting incentives despite having to foot rentals, transport costs and other expenses just like their urban-based counterparts.
“Following the recent increase of civil servants’ salaries, the Ministry had resolved to stop the paying of teachers’ incentives by parents. We seek to end the disparities and confusion that was brought by the issue.
“As the responsible ministry, we made a decision to stop the teachers’ incentives, once the teachers’ salaries improved. We have submitted our position to civil servants union groups and we are still to get feedback from them.
“We want to hear from them whether it is the right time to effect the directive. Once we get that feedback, we will then make an official announcement regarding the matter,†said Dr Mahere.
He said the ministry has always been against the idea of paying teachers’ incentives.
“What we are against as the ministry is a situation whereby teachers chase away pupils who fail to pay the incentives. This has brought serious problems to the innocent pupils. The issue of teachers’ incentives had generally caused serious disharmony and compromised the quality of education in our schools.
“We have made a decision to outlaw them, but only when we agree with the civil servants’ unions that the teachers’ salaries were now viable,†he said.
Dr Mahere said schools should, however, continue to find other forms of retaining qualified teachers.
“We appreciate the idea of schools trying to retain qualified teachers in their schools.
“The ministry encourages schools to introduce traditional incentives that include housing schemes and cars for their teachers instead of paying them cash as incentives,†he said.
Most rural-based teachers, who do not get incentives, were now pushing for places in urban schools.
Some school development associations’ executives have been arrested in the past after abusing the funds which are meant to retain teachers.
Incentives were introduced following an increase in the number of teachers and other civil servants who were quitting their jobs in search of greener pastures in neigbouring countries at the height of the country’s economic woes.
Education Minister David Coltart, is on record as saying scrapping the teachers’ incentives before civil servants salaries are improved would cause chaos.
The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association dismissed the ministry’s proposal, arguing that the recent salary review fell far below the poverty datum line pegged at around US$502.
Zimta chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said while the idea of incentives was not proper, it was not the right time do away with them.
Mr Ndlovu, however, said the association has always been against the paying of incentives to teachers as the facility divided their rural and urban based members.
He said the best way of doing away with incentives was for the Government to give teachers “reasonable and living†salaries.