VOA
3 September 2009
By Patience Rusere

Zimbabwe’s public school system, once considered the best in Africa, remains mired in crisis despite hope it would revive under the national unity government installed in February.

David Coltart’s appointment as minister of education was welcomed by many including the unions representing teachers, and he has won plaudits for his work in coaxing underpaid and often politically repressed teachers to return to their classrooms.

But the education system was plunged back into crisis this week when Zimbabwe Teachers Association launched yet another strike Wednesday as a new school term began.

To examine the latest strike’s impact on schools and children, reporter Patience Rusere of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe turned to Senior Program Officer Elias Matendere of the Center for Community Development and Coordinator Israel Mabhoo of the Chiedza Nkanyiso community-based schools program, which recruits retired teachers.

Matendere said an unending series of labor actions by teachers is hindering the education of children who lost many days in the classroom in 2008 amid election-related turmoil.

SW Radio Africa
3 September 2009

The start of the new school term has been marred by a strike by some teachers on Wednesday, after members of the leading teachers’ union refused to return to their posts.

Schools reopened as scheduled on Wednesday, but many classes were suspended because of the nationwide strike. Teachers with the larger of three teachers’ unions, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA), resolved last week not to return to work at the start of term, because of unresolved salary grievances. ZIMTA on Friday said teachers did not want to continue to ‘live in abject poverty and perpetual debt’ caused by ballooning unpaid domestic utility bills and unaffordable costs of educating their children. The union said on Friday that teachers had been told not to report for work until government agrees to pay them US$300 a month and allowances of US$100. ZIMTA is reportedly also demanding a further US$100 monthly increment to see teachers earning US$500 in December.

A meeting between teachers’ union and education officials, which was hoped to avoid the mass action, reportedly failed to materialise on Monday. Finance Minister Tendai Biti instead said in an interview that the government does not have the kind of resources to meet the demands of all its civil servants. Minister Biti said the government was operating on limited cash resources with “little fiscus space” to manoeuvre. He appealed to all civil servants to be patient while the economy grew and tax revenues rose.
“Our main priority is to pay the civil servants and from the time we announced salaries for the civil service, about 70 percent or two-thirds of the budget has gone to pay our workers,” he said.

The two other teachers unions, the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and the Teachers Union of Zimbabwe however this week urged their members not to down tools. The unions met with Education officials on Tuesday to assure them that their members would be back at work as scheduled. The PTUZ has previously said another teachers’ strike would be detrimental to Zimbabwe’s reputation.
“The two unions which attended the meeting assured us that lessons would resume,” Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said in an interview with state media on Tuesday evening.
“Regrettably, ZIMTA did not attend the meeting and we assume their members might absent themselves but they should know that it is the children who suffer once again,” Coltart continued.

The Herald
3 September 2009

Harare — Thousands of schoolteachers countrywide heeded calls by their unions to report for duty as lessons resumed in earnest for the third term yesterday.

However, there was confusion in some provinces over the actual opening date as some schools had indicated to students and teachers that the third term would begin on September 8.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart yesterday said his ministry could not understand the source for this confusion as it had communicated that schools would reopen on the 2nd and not the 8th of September.

He said the position remained unchanged and all Govern-ment workers were expected to report for duty when schools opened yesterday. Minister Coltart confirmed that the majority of the teachers had turned up for lessons yesterday, but some of them left early for unknown reasons.

He, however, appealed to teachers to attend lessons to avoid jeorpadising students’ learning. “We continue to appeal to teachers to attend lessons as this third term is crucial to our students. Ordinary and Advanced Level final examinations are just a month away and we don’t want to affect students,” he said.

Educators in Zimbabwe are represented by fragmented groups the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association, the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe and the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe.

Zimta has called for a nationwide teachers’ strike demanding a salary increment that would bring their earnings at par with their counterparts in the region, while the other unions are calling for “constructive dialogue”.

Zimta secretary-general Mr Richard Gundani yesterday said their membership went to work in the morning, but returned after receiving circulars informing them of the job action. “We are starting a full-scale strike in several cities and towns tomorrow (today). Our members will not report for work at all,” he said.

However, PTUZ secretary-general Mr Raymond Majongwe yesterday said his union was encouraging its members to report for duty today as they try to exhaust all communication channels.

“Most of our members reported for duty. We haven’t heard of any absenteeism. Some of the teachers phoned our offices to seek clarification and we told them to attend lessons,” said Mr Majongwe.

TUZ chief executive officer Mr Manuel Nyawo yesterday concurred with Mr Majongwe that the teachers should give dialogue with their employer a chance. In Masvingo, almost all teachers throughout the province reported for work.

It was business as usual at most Masvingo schools after most of the teachers reported for duty and proceeded to conduct lessons in both Masvingo urban and rural. Normal activities were noted at Vurombo, Dikwindi and Victoria Junior primary schools while teachers at Victoria, Mucheke and Ndarama high schools also reported for duty.

Teachers at boarding schools such as Berejena and Mutendi high schools were at their stations. In interviews some of the teachers said they were tired of being used as “pawns in political games” hence the decision to report for duty.

“We understand the situation facing the country at the moment and it will be heartless for us to boycott classes at a time when pupils are due for their final exams,” said a teacher at Berejena High School who preferred anonymity.

Prime Minister’s Newsletter
www.zimbabweprimeminister.org
2nd September 2009

Schools are opening on Wednesday for the third term under the veil of a pay strike threat by the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA). We interviewed the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart (DC) to find out more about the situation in public schools.

Q: Are you happy with the pace of recovery in the education sector since you took over six months ago?

DC: Whilst we have had some major breakthroughs in terms of getting schools open and teachers back to school, the situation remains fragile as demonstrated this week by the ZIMTA decision to strike. Teachers are not being paid enough. They are paid way below what other teachers are paid in South Africa. In other areas as well, the situation is still very grave. Our textbook-pupil ratios are very poor. In most of our schools the ratios are at least 15 pupils to one textbook. In some schools, the only textbook in the classroom is one held by the teacher. If you visit most Government schools you will find that the infrastructure is dilapidated. We see in essence two decades of neglect, two decades of insufficient money being paid to the education sector.

Q: How much do you need to return the education sector to where it was two decades ago?

DC: Let’s take textbooks for example. We need US$90 million just to get three pupils to share one book. The ideal situation of course is to get that ratio down to one textbook to one pupil and that would cost US$200 million, just the textbooks. To rehabilitate the whole infrastructure, just to do a basic rehabilitation of Government schools will cost at least a billion US dollars. If we are to pay our teachers a viable salary, that alone will cost between US$30 and US$40 million a month. So we are looking at huge figures that the Government cannot afford at the moment. The money we have now is a pittance compared to our requirements. The teacher salary bill is in the region of US$12 million a month. So, you see from these figures that we need double or treble what we have now.

Q: To what extent do constant threats of industrial action by teachers affect recovery efforts?

DC: If teachers don’t return to work then the sector is back to square one. Whilst Minister of Finance Tendai Biti and I are very sympathetic to the plight of teachers, the fact of the matter is that this is a transitional Government trying to recover the economy from a devastating downfall caused by very bad policies over two decades. Much as we would like to pay teachers more than they are getting now, we simply can’t afford it and this is the tragedy of the situation. Everyone has had to tighten their belts and teachers to that extent are no different from the vast majority of other people in the country. But through their actions, if they don’t go back to the classroom, they are going to jeopardise the lives of the next generation of children who are completely innocent.

Q: Why is it difficult for organisations such as ZIMTA to understand your situation?

DC: I don’t want to paint all the teachers with the same brush. As we have seen, the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe understands the situation. They are suffering as much as those teachers under ZIMTA. But they understand that we are trying our best to remedy the situation and I would hope that ZIMTA would demonstrate similar maturity and patriotism. But I believe that the vast majority of teachers have demonstrated patriotism and I hope that teachers will still turn out for work in the interests of children. It is extremely important however, that they must be satisfied that we are going to do everything possible to alleviate their plight. That is the commitment I give and it’s the commitment that Minister Biti has given.

Q: But is this commitment shared by your colleagues in Government, for example in terms of spending and prioritisation?

DC: This is the real challenge. Minister Biti has made it very clear that education and health are his priorities. The question is; are we going to get a broad consensus in Cabinet to back that commitment? The money for education has to come from somewhere yet the cake is not getting that much bigger. So we have to cut the cake in a different way and that means certain sectors are going to have to be cut back. We will have to cut back on certain other ministries. We will have to cut back on the size of Government and on the luxuries that senior people in Government have become accustomed to over the last three decades. These are hard choices that we will have to make. If we are to persuade teachers that they must cut back and sacrifice, then leaders must demonstrate that they are doing the same. That, in turn, may bond a patriotic sense that we are all working together and making sacrifices in the national good.

Q: Is the Government still pursuing teachers who had fled economic and political problems to settle for menial jobs in neighbouring countries?

DC: One of the legitimate issues raised by ZIMTA was the tardiness in processing the application of teachers to be re-engaged. That has been a matter of deep concern to me. I announced an amnesty for teachers who had left the profession months ago, and yet we still have blockages in the system. I have been issuing further directives in the last month to our administrators saying they must do all in their power to process these applications and salaries fast. In fact in the last week I have implemented further measures. Within the next month or so, we might see those blockages removed and those teachers reintegrated into the system. We lost 20 000 teachers in 2007 and 2008 and we need to attract those teachers back into the profession.

Q: How many teachers do you have in the system and how many do you require?

DC: The establishment caters for over 140 000 teachers. We estimate that we have got between 80 000 and 90 000 teachers. That means there is considerable room to increase the number of teachers. The recommended teacher-pupil ratio in Government schools is forty to one. My National Advisory Board has produced a survey and one of the surprising results of that survey is that we have got high percentages of teachers. In fact the pupil-teacher ratios coming out of the survey is 36 to one. Now, what that means is that it appears we have got a lot less children in our system than we used to have. That may of course be due to the fact that over three million Zimbabweans are in the Diaspora and presumably a lot of children with them there as well. Another factor is that we have many children who can no longer afford to go to school. But we have got to balance all these different factors.

Q: Could you update us on the textbook grant by UNICEF targeting disadvantaged schools?

DC: Yes, I am just about to announce a massive textbook fund. I have been working very closely with UNICEF and donor countries and we have had a lot of success. I have been working closely with the local publishing houses and printing houses as well for the printing of the textbooks.I need to stress that my attitude from day one has been to try to ensure that money from donors is going to be used in Zimbabwe. We should be able to print as many of the books in Zimbabwe as possible. This is going to be a massive program that will unfold over the next five months. We are looking at trying to deliver literally millions of textbooks by the first term of 2010. We have set ourselves very high goals. Through this program I hope I will be able to reduce the shocking textbook ratios in our schools.

Q: Has your Ministry investigated reports that militias have again set bases at rural schools?

DC: I haven’t been able to verify these reports. But what I have done is to issue a statement to all 7 000 Government schools stating that schools are educational institutions and they are to be used solely for educational issues. I have banned the use of schools by any partisan political groups. It would not surprise me though if that directive has not been fully implemented. If need be, I intend to introduce changes to the law to make it very clear that schools are to be solely used for education. I hope in that way we might be able to get rid of the presence of militia from our schools so that we create a conducive atmosphere for learning.

The Herald
2 September 2009
By Lloyd Gumbo and John Manzongo

Harare — Some teachers’ unions have urged their members to report for duty today following a meeting with senior Government officials over salaries and other work-related issues yesterday.

Two of the three major unions the Progressive Tea-chers’ Union of Zimbabwe and the Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe — said their members would take classes when schools reopen today.

Only the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association, which had called for a strike over salaries among other grievances, remained adamant the industrial action would go ahead, describing yesterday’s meeting as “unprocedural”.

Zimta president Mrs Tendai Chikowore said they did not attend the meeting.

However, yesterday afternoon boarders could be seen travelling to their various schools with parents expressing hope that teachers would report for duty while their grievances were being addressed.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said two of the three major unions had assured Government that their members would report for duty as scheduled.

“The two unions which attended the meeting assured us that lessons would resume. “Regrettably, Zimta did not attend the meeting and we assume their members might absent themselves but they should know that it is the children who suffer once again,” he said.

Minister Coltart said the third term was crucial con- sidering that end of year examinations were just around the corner and the best way forward would be for teachers to report for duty as Government continued to work on factors affecting the profession.

“We sympathise with teachers’ plight but they should understand the challenges that Government is facing. We must pull the load together,” he added.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti commended the two unions for appreciating Government’s efforts. “We had a frank meeting with the unions, however Zimta boycotted and we assume their members will not attend lessons.

“It is their democratic right to strike, but they should evaluate the merits and demerits of the strike,” he said. Minister Biti said it was a well-known fact that the economy was still recovering and no one should derail Government’s turnaround efforts.

Zimta president Mrs Chikowore, however, said: “We did not attend the meeting because Government has not yet addressed our grievances but they went on to invite other unions that had not raised any issues with them.

“Government is trying to divide us by portraying us as deviants and confused.”

Sources revealed that in yesterday’s meeting Minister Biti explained that Government revenue inflows were still low and hence the State could not pay the kind of salaries teachers were presently demanding.

He pointed out that the State had recorded its highest inflows in July when about US$90 million was collected. Of this, civil servants’ salaries chewed 65 percentor US$52 million.

He said conditions would improve as revenue collections rose. Yesterday parents interviewed by The Herald urged Government to pay teachers “reasonable” salaries, but implored educators not to abandon their posts.

Mr Jonathan Mavhiyane, whose son is a boarder at St Mark’s in Mhondoro, said: “Government should pay meaningful salaries to teachers since they are professionals who deserve a decent life.

“Teachers cannot be the same as general labourers. However, at the same time teachers must appreciate that they cannot hold the nation to ransom and must negotiate as they work.”

Another parent, Mr Stanley Kufandirori, whose daughter is a pupil at Langham Girls’ High said: “The current salaries are commensurate with their services because they are not teaching but creating extra lessons to make more cash for themselves.

“They deserve what they are getting and until they realise that we will not spoil them by indulging their desire to have large sums of money we cannot support strikes.

“They are earning more money than they are working for.”

VOA
2 September 2009
By Jonga Kandemiiri

Many teachers heeded the call by the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association to go out on strike Wednesday as schools reopened for a new term.

But instructors from the Progressive Teachers of Union showed up at their schools though some sources said there was not a lot of teaching taking place in classrooms.

Education Minister David Coltart tried to engage officials of the Teachers Association in talks late Tuesday, but officials of the organization did not participate.

Association Secretary General Richard Gundani told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA’s Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the strike was successful, but he could not provide figures on how many schools were affected by the labor action.

ZIMTA is demanding an increase in teacher salaries of up to US$700 a month compared with the current entry level wage of US$170. The government says it cannot afford this.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe General Secretary Raymond Majongwe said about 60% to 70% of teachers reported for duty around the country on Wednesday.

PR Web
2 September 2009

The highly successful THRASS synthetic phonics programme has for some time been described as heralding the start of a new era in the teaching of English in Africa. Now, following two recent workshops in Harare and Nyanga, it is helping to realise the dreams of many children, parents, teachers and others in the education sector in Zimbabwe, including Government Ministers and officials.

The Davies first introduced the THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) synthetic phonics programme into pilot schools in and around Harare in 2008 using the innovative THRASS SING-A-LONG resources that include the most fantastic interactive software and are considered to be the best way of introducing THRASS where resources are limited. The pilot was an immediate success and in April 2009 the Government gave them permission to extend the project by funding training for teachers at the original pilot schools and including additional pilot schools in Nyanga District.

The workshops were for teachers from those pilot schools and formed part of a new training programme developed by THRASS UK that focuses first on SING-A-LONG before moving on to the more traditional THRASS training and which has already been used with enormous success in Nigeria. The completion of the workshops, funded by Alan and Hilary Davies, means that 100 teachers have now been trained, along with several education officials from both the Ministry of Education and Nyanga District.

And the workshops have been an enormous success. “Brilliant! This workshop will go down in history as one of the major milestones in the reawakening of the education system in Zimbabwe.” “From today my pupils will be able to spell, write and read fluently.” “It’s just been brilliant and it’s a dream come true for me.” “Wonderful. The information will not only empower Zimbabwean children but parents, college students, and people who work with English.” “I wish I had known about THRASS before; I can see the future of our children bright.” These were just some of the comments of teachers attending the workshops.

But it wasn’t just the teachers who were impressed. The Government of Zimbabwe fully supports THRASS and several officials from the Ministry of Education and from Nyanga District also attended. Afterwards, Pheobe Musakan, Materials Production Officer (English), said of THRASS, “An eye opener and very educative. I hope that it will cascade to all schools in Zimbabwe as well as teacher training colleges.” And John Sithole, Acting Deputy Director, Education Technology Centre, described THRASS as “an exciting programme that empowers teachers to teach aspects of language effectively and efficiently, while affording learners an opportunity to enjoy learning.”

There are 44 THRASS SING-A-LONG songs that teachers and parents can sing with children to explain the 44 sounds and 120 main spelling choices of English. The songs are real fun, give everyone a lift and really motivate children to learn. The words and music for the songs were written by South African music teacher Janine Plunkett and they all have really memorable tunes in different musical styles and dance rhythms from around the world, and wonderful imaginative titles such as “The moon fell out of the sky”, “A great big gorilla” and “You don’t get pandas in Africa”. And as well as being fun, singing can benefit children in many different ways: it’s good for their physical health and also for their emotional well-being, as it can help them express their emotions, and increase their confidence and communication skills. It has also been shown to accelerate learning and improve memory.

But THRASS doesn’t just help with the teaching and learning of English. There are also printable and interactive THRASS Calendar Charts to help with early language learning of Shona and other African, Asian and European languages that can be downloaded free-of-charge from the THRASS website.

It is an indication of the significance of THRASS that in South Africa it is being sponsored by Absa Bank, a member of the Barclays Group, through the THRASS Absa TalkTogether Project, a unique educational partnership that is aiming to revolutionise the teaching and learning of language through partnerships between primary schools, universities and other organisations. To date, over 5,000 teachers and student teachers have earned the THRASS Accredited Certificate, which is already a compulsory module for Foundation Phase student teachers at six universities, with 1,000 of these having been sponsored by the TalkTogether Project.

The Government of Zimbabwe believes that THRASS is “a worthwhile innovation that should be pursued with a view to rolling it out for the benefit of all schools in the country” and Alan Davies, Executive Director of THRASS UK, has already met Minister of Education, David Coltart, to discuss proposals for extending the project further.

The enthusiasm with which THRASS has been received by everyone involved and the possibility of its wider implementation means that the future for teaching English to the children of Zimbabwe certainly looks bright and the dreams of many there are already starting to be realised.

The THRASS extensive picture-based training website with easy access to a wide range of resources and support materials, and extensive evidence of the widespread success of THRASS is at www.thrass.co.uk/teaching.htm

Zimbabwe Telegraph
2 September 2009
By Getrude Gumede

HARARE – Most teachers did not report for duty when schools opened for the third term on Wednesday despite pleas from Government and two of their unions for them to take classes while their grievances are being looked into.

The teachers who are demanding better salaries and review of their working conditions said they will only return to work when their grievances have been addressed.

The Government immediately described the action as regrettable and urged them to return to work while it addresses their grievances.

Most teachers returned home in the mid-morning after holding brief meetings at their respective schools.

The secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA), Richard Gundani on Wednesday said teachers countrywide had heeded the association’s call for them to down tools save for a few teachers in the rural areas, who had not received official communication.

He said the teachers wanted the re-introduction of the US$100 allowance and a basic salary, which would be progressively increased until it reaches US$500 by December. “The strike has started countrywide. In Harare and other cities such as Mutare and Bulawayo, teachers went to their respective schools to confirm the official communication regarding the strike. Most went home after confirming the association’s position regarding the industrial action.

“Some teachers, who are working in the rural areas did not go to work because they were assessing the situation in the cities while most of our members, who are in the rural areas phoned us to get direction. We have informed them that the strike is on, so they will not be reporting for duty.

“We don’t expect teachers to be at work until they receive a go-ahead from us. The introduction of salaries was a good idea but we want them to be reviewed progressively until it reaches US$500, which is in line with the bread basket.

“The allowances were also good and we want them to be re-introduced,” said Gundani.

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart said the action by teachers was regrettable and unfortunate as the Government was doing everything in its power to address their grievances.

“I’m very disappointed with the teachers. Their action is prejudicing children and this is unfair. We understand that they have challenges but we are trying to alleviate that. We would want them to be patient as we try to find a solution to the problem,” he said.

Coltart said he tried to meet officials from the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) to discuss the matter but they refused.

He however said he was still willing to negotiate with the teachers to find a solution to the impasse.

Gundani said they had given Coltart reasons as to why they refused to meet him on Tuesday.

Coltart instead met officials from the Progressive Teachers Union (PTUZ) and Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (TUZ).

SW Radio Africa
By Alex Bell
01 September 2009

Many schools across the country are expected to remain shut at the start of the new term this week, because of a nationwide teachers’ strike that is set to go ahead on Wednesday.

The start of the new school term has been in doubt after the country’s leading teacher’s union last week called for a mass strike over pay. Teachers now earn an average of US$155 per month after deductions, after an incremental adjustment earlier this year. However, teachers’ unions have rejected the amount, saying the government ‘imposed’ the salaries on them, rather than coming to an agreement with the education staff.

The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) last week said teachers did not want to continue to ‘live in abject poverty and perpetual debt’ caused by ballooning unpaid domestic utility bills and unaffordable costs of educating their children. The union said on Friday that teachers had been told not to report for work until government agrees to pay them US$300 a month and allowances of US$100. ZIMTA is reportedly also demanding a further US$100 monthly increment to see teachers earning US$500 in December.

A meeting between teachers’ union and education officials, which was hoped to avoid the mass action, reportedly failed to materialise on Monday. Finance Minister Tendai Biti instead said in an interview that the government does not have the kind of resources to meet the demands of all its civil servants. Minister Biti said the government was operating on limited cash resources with “little fiscus space” to manoeuvre. He appealed to all civil servants to be patient while the economy grew and tax revenues rose.

“Our main priority is to pay the civil servants and from the time we announced salaries for the civil service, about 70 percent or two-thirds of the budget has gone to pay our workers,” he said.

The call for patience is not a new one and teachers have previously withdrawn threats to down tools because of the government’s ‘empty coffers’ argument. But ZIMTA earlier this year warned that a mass strike would be a last resort by teachers, saying that the Education Ministry had until the end of July to produce a ‘progressive’ salary structure for state teachers. ZIMTA Acting Chief Executive Sifiso Ndlovu on Tuesday said the Ministry has not acted in good faith and has failed to draw up a reliable plan to award teachers’ patience.

“These excuses from the government are 11th hour excuses, and they are not good enough after months of patiently waiting for our concerns to be addressed,” Ndlovu said.

Ndlovu explained that ‘meaningful engagement’ with the Ministries of Education and Finance, in the absence of a long-term payment strategy, would help end the strike. But he insisted that teachers would not be returning to their posts until some form of assurance from the government was forthcoming.

Meanwhile, the smaller union, the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), has said it will not be joining the strike, voicing fears over the recent dismissal of some striking doctors. Doctors, who were on strike for roughly three weeks, ended their mass action last week, but not before a number of state doctors were issued with letters of dismissal. PTUZ Secretary General Raymond Majongwe said in an interview that the union did not want to expose its members to the same action, adding that it was ‘irresponsible’ to forgo another school term.

Last year, students only received an estimated 26 days of full learning as a result of rampant teachers’ strikes, and disruption due to last year’s politically motivated violence. Concerns are now high that another lost year of education will further erode the country’s reputation as one of the most literate countries in Africa.

VOA
1 September 2009
By Jonga Kandemiiri

Many of Zimbabwe’s teachers seemed likely to be absent from classrooms on Wednesday as the country’s largest association representing instructors failed to show up for a meeting called Tuesday by Education Minister David Coltart and Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

The two ministers were hoping to stave off a strike called for Wednesday, when schools are scheduled to reopen for a new term, by the Zimbabwe Teachers Association.

Coltart and Biti met late Tuesday with representatives of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and the Teachers Union of Zimbabwe. But the Zimbabwe Teachers Association is the largest representative organization, particularly in the country’s rural areas.

Sources who attended the meeting said Biti offered proof that the government does not have funds to increase teacher salaries, and asked for patience on the part of all civil servants whose wages now account for 70% of the country’s thin budget.

Biti said funds were not forthcoming from international donors to help meet their demands.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe General Secretary Raymond Majongwe said a strike at this point would be counterproductive, urging his members to stay on the job.

But Zimbabwe Teachers Association Secretary General Richard Gundani told reporter Jonga Kandemiiri that the strike Wednesday by his members will go ahead as planned.