Some 10 000 teachers and ancillary staff working for
private colleges throughout the country have gone for months without salaries
as Covid-19 lockdown continues, the president of the Association of Independent
Colleges in Zimbabwe (AICZ), Prof Washington Mahiya has said.
Mahiya said this in an interview with The Mirror this week
as he appealed to Government to allow for the reopening of private colleges. He
argued that Government has little reason to keep private colleges closed
because most have the capacity to comply with the lockdown requirements
including maintaining social distance and giving pupils
masks and sanitisers.
He said private colleges were solely dependent on fees paid
by parents for their income and many will shutdown for good if Government
continues to dilly-dally on the appeal.
He said the situation is dire with debts mounting in unpaid
rentals, staff salaries and other day-today costs. The majority of colleges are
being threatened with eviction by landlords, said Prof Mahiya.
One college director who declined to be named said there is
no basis for refusing private colleges permission to reopen because their
classes are much smaller with less than 20 pupils and space is available to
ensure that the required social distance is maintained.
He said that all institutions that have been seen to have
the capacity to meet standards for Covid lockdown have been granted permission
by Government to reopen and it was therefore unfair for private colleges to be
refused the same simply because public schools have no capacity to meet such.
“Private hospitals are open while public hospitals are closed; this is because they can meet the
requirements while the latter cannot. The same must apply to private and public
schools. Private schools can meet the requirements and they should therefore
not be refused permission to reopen because public schools cannot,” said the
director.
The Minister of Education Cain Mathema however, said
schools will only be allowed to reopen for exam classes. He said it was
difficult to allow private colleges to reopen in the face of one of the most
deadly pandemic in modern times.
“The situation is terrible for independent colleges at the
moment. We survive on income from parents for salaries and rentals. We have
over 100 000 students and over 10 000 teachers and ancillary staff and we only
managed to pay rentals for three months after declaration of the national
lockdown in March.
“Our teachers and workers are suffering because they have
no source of income; they can’t pay rent, they can’t buy food for their
children, they have been reduced to paupers. The situation is heart rending.
“We have engaged authorities to reopen.
Chances are that many colleges will not reopen after the
lockdown because they will be broke,” said Mahiya.
AICZ chairperson for Harare Taurayi Mataka said some of
their members borrowed money from banks to finance or expand their projects and
those loans are accruing huge interests. He said independent colleges in other countries are being allowed to open because of their
capacity to provide PPEs since most of them have a reasonable number of
students as compared to public schools.
He said the situation is terrible for college workers as
they are failing to pay rents to their landlords. President Mnangagwa announced
a fund to support business threatened with Covid lockdown but none have
received those funds so far.
AICZ Masvingo secretary general Sarah Mnemo said continued
closure will have tragic effects on the future of children. She said children
are now committing vices like drug abuse and there are many early pregnancies
because they have nothing to do. Masvingo Mirror
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