NewZimbabwe.com
9 January 2012
The main teachers unions appeared divided over a call to go on strike when schools re-open on Tuesday while education minister, David Coltart warned any job action could cripple the country’s education sector.
Junior teachers currently earn about $253 a month and unions are demanding parity with the country’s poverty line which is estimated at currently pegged at $540 a month for a family of six.
But talks with the government have made little head-way and some of the unions said their members would not report for work on Tuesday.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou said his members would not report for work the rival Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) said it would await the outcome of talks scheduled for Wednesday.
“We hope that our colleagues in ZIMTA will realize that the best way forward is industrial action because the language that our government understands is industrial action and that they will be joining us on Wednesday,” Zhou said.
However, ZIMTA President Tendai Chikowore, who also chairs the Apex Council which negotiates with the government on behalf of civil servants, said it would be counterproductive for teachers to go on strike while they are still negotiating with the government.
Meanwhile, education minister David Coltart said there was little his ministry could do to stop the job action since it did not directly employ the teachers.
Teachers are employed by the Public Service Commission.
“I am speaking to the trade unions but not as part of the negotiations team because I do not employ them and do not participate in the tripartite negotiations,” Coltart told a local daily.
Coltart warned that the strike could further damage the country’s education sector which is struggling to recover from the near-collapse experienced in the last decade.
“We have done what we can and everything is on track — exam papers are being marked, dates for opening of schools have been set long ago, secondary school textbooks are being delivered countrywide, but of course all of that will mean little if teachers go on strike,” he said.