Sunday News
12 December 2010
By Vusumuzi Dube
GOVERNMENT is considering abolishing teacher incentives after noting pleas and complaints from parents and guardians for policymakers to take a hard-line stance on the issue, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, said Government was fully aware on the burden caused by incentives on the parents.
He said while he was very sympathetic to the parents and guardians he was also responsible for the success or failure of the education sector in the country.
“To be frank I am very much aware and sympathetic to the parents’ plight with regards to teacher incentives, so as soon as I can, I will definitely abolish these incentives but on the other hand I can’t just abolish them and see the education sector collapse,†said Senator Coltart.
He said his ministry was now awaiting to see the impact of the 2011 National Budget in terms of civil servants’ salaries then they were going to deliberate on the necessity of incentives.
“If the budget realises the increase of salaries, we will then sit down together with teachers unions and deliberate on these incentives, over and above all I foresee a situation where in the new year teacher incentives would be quite a minimal figure if not totally abolished,†said the minister.
The Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, almost doubled the civil service wage bill in the 2011 budget, increasing it from US$773 million to US$1,4 billion.
Senator Coltart also noted that with the budget allocation to civil servants’ salaries there was a great possibility that parents would not be faced with a similar burden in the following terms.
“The allocation is not enough but is also quite significant therefore at the end of the day parents won’t be faced with a similar situation, very soon I will be making a positive announcement with regards to this issue.
“So my call to parents is for them to be patient and await the Ministry’s announcement at the very least the incentives will be reduced significantly,†said the minister.
Meanwhile, the chairperson of the Apex Council who is also President of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA), Mrs Tendai Chikowore said at the moment abolishing incentives was not feasible as the Government had not as yet come up with a proper package for teachers.
“As it stands we are not even sure what we are receiving for the month of January, so our belief is that these incentives must continue until we get a reasonable figure from the Government. As far as we are concerned this war is far from being over,†she said.
Mrs Chikowore said it was ironic that the very parents who were complaining are the ones who had introduced incentives to help lure back teachers to teach their children at a time when they were getting next to nothing.
“Honestly, parents will do anything just to ensure their children get an education so in this case they would be simple assisting Government meet the obligation of teachers’ salaries,†she said.