BY Staff Reporter
Teachers hired by the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) to mark the 2020 Grade Seven examinations yesterday claimed that they have not been paid, over a month after completing the exercise.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Association of Zimbabwe (Artuz) president Obert Masaraure said the teachers were supposed to be paid $10 for every Paper 1 script marked and $15 for the Paper 2. Each teacher was supposed to mark about 500 scripts, meaning those who marked Paper 1 were owed about $5 000 while those who marked Paper 2 were owed about $7 500.
“They are coming and complaining that they have not been paid,” Masaraure said.
Due to the COVID-19-induced school closures last year, Grade Seven examinations that are usually sat for in October, were written in December and marking started soon after the festive season.
The results for the examinations were released early this month.
Zimsec spokesperson Nicky Dlamini, however, insisted that teachers were paid soon after completion of the exercise.
“Within the first week during the marking, we gave them their travel and subsistence allowances and as soon as they finished marking, they were given their money.”
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But some teachers from Bulawayo said: “We were promised to be paid soon after the examinations, but it is now more than four weeks, we have not been paid.”
They claimed that they had engaged their supervisors, but to no avail.
Masaraure, whose union has been urging teachers to snub invigilation and marking, said the non-payment had taught teachers that they were stronger collectively than as individuals.
“It is high time that teachers learn to appreciate the need for collective engagement. The employer is not going to give us any preference because we are non-compliant,” Masaraure said.
“Government will only give us respect if we unite as a working class and confront them to demand better payment, we need each other, we need to fight collectively.
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