The Associated Press
1st May 2009
By ANGUS SHAW
(AP) — HARARE, Zimbabwe – As they marked the annual labor day holiday, teachers said Friday their talks with the government to avert a nationwide strike over pay had not produced an agreement.
The education ministry “was not ready to offer anything” Thursday and a second meeting to include foreign donors and representatives of the United Nations children’s agency was scheduled Monday, said labor leader Raymond Majongwe.
The two main teachers organizations, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association and the Progressive Teachers Union led by Majongwe, have called the strike for May 5, the first day of the new school term. The two unions represent 60,000 members.
Last year, inflation had shrunk teachers’ pay so much that some were unable to afford bus fare to work. That and parents’ inability to pay school fees meant that fewer than 30 percent of pupils attended class in the last term of 2008.
School attendance improved after the new coalition government, helped by donors and the United Nations, began paying teachers $100 in February.
Unions now are demanding that figure be trebled or quadrupled, saying $100 is not enough for food, housing and transportation.
Education Minister David Coltart, a former opposition leader, told a conference of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association last week there was no money to increase the allowances without help from donors.
Sifiso Ndlovu, the association’s chief executive, said the coalition government formed in February between President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, must give greater priority to funding education.
He said the collapse of basic education was depriving a generation of children of the right to go to school, with long-term consequences for the nation.
Last year, in the political turmoil surrounding disputed elections, teachers were hounded from their posts by Mugabe party militants and many schools were “incapacitated,” Ndlovu said.
The association’s membership dropped by nearly 20,000 as teachers abandoned their jobs.
“There has to be immediate relief. You cannot go on in and endless dark tunnel,” Ndlovu said.
Labor groups, including the teachers’ unions, staged meetings and rallies across the country Friday.