Zimbabwean
By Paul Ndlovu
22 September 2010
HARARE – The Government plans to re-introduce allowances for teachers in rural schools as part of a raft of reforms meant to restore the professional status of the educators’ vocation, a cabinet minister has said.
The plan, that is part of the cabinet approved 2010/2011 Education policy, is meant to subsidise the low salaries that rural teachers. The Minister of Education, Sports, Art and Culture, Senator David Coltart, said the ministry would push for the improvement of the salaries of teachers to the maximum affordable level.
“The Ministry does not control public service salary levels, and will work with colleagues in other ministries to try to ensure that teachers incomes are improved to the maximum level that is possible in the context of the need for retaining some balance between employment costs and non salary recurrent costs, and between recurrent and capital expenditure,” he said.
Coltart said the ministry would also campaign for the re-introduction of the payment of rural allowances to teachers in remote locations. “The regulations and procedures exist for this allowance payment, and with budget provision, it would be a simple matter to reintroduce payment of these allowances as one positive step to ensure that teachers in remote locations, who are least likely to benefit from any salary supplements from parents levies, are provided an incentive to remain in post,” he said.
the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) Chief Executive Officer, Sifiso Ndlovu, cautiously welcomed the plans by the government to pay rural allowances. “That is a welcome development which is long overdue considering that some of our teachers shun rural areas because of the challenges such as transport. For the development of the country, that is a welcome move. For equal access to quality education, that is a welcome move.
“However, it may work temporarily. The question is does the economy have the capacity to pay extra funds? I just hope the minister and the Government is not fooling us about this. Because unless there is a promise from the donor community, there is already a challenge there,” he said. Ndlovu said the teacher situation was still precarious, especially with the
ministry’s directive not to engage temporary teachers.
The minister said the overall situation countrywide regarding qualified teachers was not bad, but there was a growing percentage of unqualified teachers, which needed to be stopped. “In rural areas there are much higher percentages of unqualified teachers, especially in areas where teachers have been harassed. This trend needs to be reversed because it is now being reflected in much worse results coming out of the rural areas in comparison to urban areas,” he said.
Senator Coltart said the ministry would also establish a teaching service professional council as a body to provide guidance and support to the teaching profession and help to restore its professional status.
The Senator said the ministry also proposed a number of critical system development activities for 2011, which would lay the foundation for longer term system capacity to deliver on the medium term strategic plan. “We also propose a study of teacher supply, utilization and development which will provide the basis of a more coherent strategy for human resource planning and management in the Ministry.
“This study should build on available information in the present EMIS system and other official databases, but also provide more specific and detailed information to permit more efficient and equitable deployment and utilization of the teaching corps in the country. This will include a review of non-teaching staff in the ministry and institutions to provide the most efficient and effective support to enable teachers to perform their duties,” he said.