TEACHERS have vowed to press on with their industrial action after talks with the government collapsed yesterday as they also complained bitterly over alleged favouritism towards the army and police.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube, who was supposed to be part
of the meeting, was conspicuous by his absence, while Public Service minister
Paul Mavima said Cabinet would look into the matter in today’s meeting.
Primary and Secondary Education minister Cain Mathema was
also in attendance. Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive
Sifiso Ndlovu said there was no progress and the meeting was turned into a
“talking and listening session”.
“Only a capacitating salary can bring back teachers to the
classroom,” he said after the meeting. “No progress was made. It turned out to
be a talking and listening exercise, with government promising to take the
workers’ grievances to Cabinet (today).”
Schools reopened last Monday for examination classes, but
most teachers have refused to go back to work citing incapacitation.
This forced Mathema last week to announce that he had set
up a reserve force of 25 000 temporary teachers to replace the striking
teachers and prepare examination classes for finals that are due in December.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president
Takafira Zhou, whose organisation also attended yesterday’s meeting, said the
indaba “was a waste of time”.
“It was a wasted day and sad as it came on World Teachers
Day,” Zhou said. “The minister had nothing to offer except the same old story
that Cabinet is meeting tomorrow (today) and will look into the matter.”
He said what was more insulting was that other civil
servants, including soldiers and police, were getting over $20 000 a month
while teachers were getting a paltry $3 500.
He said it was not practical to serve children who would be
paying more than $30 000 in school fees while their own children could not
afford that.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz)
spokesperson Nation Mudzitirwa said there was nothing positive from their
meeting with government and, therefore, the teachers remained incapacitated.
“Nothing came out. We still maintain our stance that we are
incapacitated,” he said.
In a joint statement after the meeting, the nine teachers’
organisations said it was displeasing that the government was seemingly
prioritising the soldiers and police over them.
“The irony of this situation has been your piecemeal and
discriminatory awards for public service, State employees and civil servants
with other State employees getting better awards, this is surprising as much as
it is shocking, and indeed frustrating,” the teachers’ unions said.
“The armed forces seem to be holding the better end of the
stick since July 2020. In some instances, they seem to have received more than
double teachers’ salaries.
“By comparative terms, this indicates that educators are
workers of lesser status in the macroeconomic yard. We feel this is
unjustifiable, unnecessary and provocative discrimination.”
The teachers added: “All this is happening when the economy
has re-dollarised. Transport, groceries, medication, rentals, school fees and
other services are dollarised.
“Your economic intelligence units have these statistics,
and we cannot believe you when you claim ignorance of these factors,” the
teachers said in apparent reference to a statement by Mathema last week, who
told Parliament that he was not aware why teachers were declaring
incapacitation.
The teachers are demanding restoration of the purchasing
power parity of their October 2018 earnings that stood at US$520.
“We also want government to address the current salary
distortions impacting on equitable remuneration management and creating
arbitrary awards between teachers and other workers of the same government. We
demand that the rationalisation be done and backdated to July,” the teachers
said.
The meeting came after the government, through Mathema,
accused some teachers of illegally conducting extra lessons and charging US$5
per subject, but failing to turn up for official duty.
Last week, Treasury announced a 40% cost of living salary
adjustment to cushion civil servants, but the teachers described the adjustment
as “a joke”.
“The gross salary pegged around $4 200 for most of teachers
can be best described as an insult to hardworking teachers and makes no sense
in an economy where even the governments’ own statistics agency has calculated
the poverty datum line at $17 244 for a family of six as of August 2020. That
alone indicates the salary is inadequate for survival,” the educators said.
“They just took our demands, then they said they are going
to present it to Cabinet so we wait for their feedback while we are not at work
because we don’t have the capacity to report for duty.”
Government last week forced the opening of schools with
examination-writing classes, but teachers yesterday advised parents to withdraw
their children from schools as they risked contracting COVID-19 since they
would be without supervisors. Newsday
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