TEACHERS have demanded that their bonus this year be paid in United States dollars.
The issue came out during the Zimbabwe Teachers Association
(Zimta) Ehlekweni Declaration made on November 6, 2021, where the educators
threatened to boycott invigilating the 2021-22 Zimbabwe Schools Examination
Council (Zimsec) examinations citing incapacitation.
Other teachers’ unions have declared that their members
would engage on a full-blown strike over low salaries and poor working
conditions.
“Teachers are demanding that the employer must pay bonuses
in United States dollars this month of November 2021,” Zimta said in a
statement.
“Because teachers are sinking deeper into incapacitation
each and every day, this is the only way to avert crashing them deeper into
poverty and dysfunction.”
Contacted for comment, Public Service minister Paul Mavima
told NewsDay that government was still deliberating on the teachers’ demands.
“Government will pay civil servants their bonuses starting
this month, but the issue of payment in United States dollars is still under
consideration. Government will announce its position in due course,” Mavima
said.
Teachers also said starting this month, they wanted
invigilation of examinations to be paid for by Zimsec, as this was the only way
to guarantee the quality of examinations, while motivating the teachers and
introducing equity in the treatment of all those who manage examinations.
They said evidence at hand had proved that Zimsec had the
capacity to pay teachers for invigilation services.
Zimsec examinations are scheduled to begin on November 22
for “O” Level candidates, while the “A” Level and Grade 7 examinations will
commence on November 29.
Last year, the Primary and Secondary Education ministry was
forced to recruit external invigilators after teachers, who were on strike,
failed to pitch up.
Zimsec spokesperson Nichollette Dlamini said she was aware
that the teachers had raised the concerns, but referred all questions to the
ministry.
“The teachers raised those concerns during a roundtable
meeting held recently, where the Primary and Secondary Education ministry was
in attendance. The ministry said the teachers’ concerns were under its purview,
therefore, we are still waiting for its communication over that matter,”
Dlamini said.
Ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro was, however, not
picking calls yesterday.
During their meeting, Zimta called on government to enhance
forex withdrawals by teachers to cushion their earnings from inflation.
“In the same declaration, the educators are demanding that
government puts in place a facility that enables teachers to access the weekly
US$50 from their individual nostro accounts,” they said.
“This has been necessitated by failure of the majority to
access their weekly forex allocations availed to them via local banks and
bureaux de change by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.”
The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz)
national executive council yesterday declared a 12-day job action against
teachers’ low salaries, starting from Friday this week.
“Teachers will not invigilate this year’s examinations
unless Zimsec tables invigilation contracts to teachers,” Artuz
secretary-general Robson Chere said.
“Invigilation will be treated as a separate responsibility
and teachers should be paid. Teachers will completely withdraw labour for 12
working days beginning November 15, 2021 in protest against slave wages. The
union demands restoration of the pre-October 2018 salaries. The union demands a
bonus which is 100% of the pre-October 2018 salaries.”
For most part of 2020 and 2021, several teachers have not
been reporting for duty citing incapacitation. Newsday
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