UNIONS representing teachers have welcomed measures to remove excess staff accruing from falsifying the number of learners in various schools which has piled pressure on struggling Treasury.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
Government was reportedly hiring hundreds of teachers based on falsified information of pupils that was being provided by some school heads.
This has prompted the government to call for an audit to flush out ghost pupils starting next month.
According to sources, the government will descend heavily on those caught on the wrong side.
Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe chief executive officer Manuel Nyawo said they knew of reports where some headmasters were inflating the number of learners.
He also said there were reports that district education officers (DEOs) were employing temporary teachers ahead of qualified ones who have been rendered jobless for years.
“We blame it squarely on administration, mainly heads of schools, who are conniving with the DEOs,” Nyawo said.
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“It is quite shocking that the system has been creating liabilities that are eating into the government coffers when it is known that these teachers are unwanted elements in our system. We are appealing to the government to descend on those unscrupulous heads and DEOs who may have been conniving. We can’t allow a system that seems to protect individuals who are actually causing a lot of unwanted confusion in our system.”
He said the government must only retain bona fide teachers.
Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu described as unprofessional and unethical for officials to inflate pupil numbers.
“If there is truth in those allegations, then they (ghost teachers) should be removed and this will not affect the education sector at all,” he said.
“From a national point of view, we will not support teachers who might have deliberately inflated figures. It’s not professional and ethical.”
Treasury is struggling to pay government workers amid reports that the civil service payroll is contaminated by ghost employees in various ministries.
