PRESIDENT Mnangagwa yesterday met representatives of
teachers with disabilities to have an appreciation of their plight in the
discharge of the educational duties.
The meeting was held at the initiation of the Progressive
Teachers Union of Zimbabwe who raised several challenges teachers with disability
are facing .
In an interview soon after the meeting at the President’s
Munhumutapa offices, PTUZ secretary for teachers with disabilities, Mr Abiot
Moyo, described their meeting with the President as fruitful and productive.
“We had a positive, fruitful and productive engagement with
the President. The meeting was held at our request.
“The issues that we raised are transport, visual
impairment, albinism and wheelchairs,among others. Other issues related to our
assistance whose allowances are taking long to be paid. The President directed
that the Public Service Commission look into it,” said Mr Moyo.
He said other issues related to disability grant which they
implored Government to introduce given the teachers with disabilities’
challenges.
Mr Moyo said President Mnangagwa pledged that he will look
into their plight working together with relevant Ministries and Government
departments.
A written paper was also submitted to President Mnangagwa
detailing concerns from teachers with disabilities.
“There should be a meaningful disability grant. Currently
our members have the problem that they incur extra costs when travelling. Some
are accompanied by helpers who themselves have to pay fares when accompanying
the disabled member,” reads the paper.
“The law should make it mandatory for private and public
facilities accessed by members of the public to be disabled-friendly. Currently
there is only a moral, not legal obligation on the owners of public buildings
to make sure they are accessible to all including the disabled.”
The teachers also felt that Government was not sensitive
enough on the deployment of teachers with disabilities.
“There is no deployment policy for these teachers to be
deployed to schools, which suit their condition. In the end one may argue that
some officers are deliberately setting up the teacher to fail to deliver
services. They then blame the issue on the disability of the teacher,” said the
teachers.
“Due to low salaries, most teachers have had to resort to
moonlighting, that is doing other jobs for payment in their spare time.
“This is difficult for teachers living with disabilities.
We have no wish to moonlight but we request that the Government should pay us
enough.”
On visually impaired teachers, President Mnangagwa was told
that such educators were not provided with adequate equipment.
“A visually impaired teacher is forced to provide a Braille
scheme at his own cost, and then prepare a print version so that the headmaster
can see it. To be effective in the classroom, that teacher needs a laptop and
projector so that what he or she will be teaching is visualised by the
learners. There is need for Braille paper and braille machines. Currently
schools do not provide for us, and we have to part with our salaries to do
that,” the teacher said.
They also bemoaned the cost of wheelchairs which they said
was beyond the reach of teachers.
“Those without limbs in some cases need useful and user
friendly artificial limbs. These are generally expensive and difficult to procure
for the teacher living with disabilities,” they said.
It was the view of the teachers with disability that they
be appointed to positions of authority in the hierarchy of the Ministry of
primary and Secondary Education.
“We have many members who are qualified and therefore
deserve to be appointed. Promotion of teachers with disabilities are mainly
positive in certain provinces like Masvingo where there are many teachers
living with disabilities being promoted,” they said. Herald
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