TEACHERS have rapped government’s failure to adequately fund the education sector in the country to ensure its stability, saying its actions pose a threat to education delivery.
Zimbabwe joined the rest of the world in commemorating World Teachers Day on Sunday this week.
The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education recently flagged the government as the biggest culprit in sabotaging the sector revealing that it owes US$72 million as of March this year inclusive of debts related to the Basic Education Assistance Module.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou told NewsDay that teachers are key to the development of the education sector.
“The global roadmap for the Education 2030 Framework of Action emphasises the essence of teachers as significant for equitable and quality education and, therefore, must be well paid, motivated and supported within well-resourced, efficient and effectively governed systems,” he said.
Over the years, teachers have pleaded with their employer to restore their salaries to pre-October 2018 levels, when their pay was able to sustain a decent standard of living.
Zhou said appropriate infrastructure in schools was conspicuous by its absence or had collapsed.
“There is a shortage of 3 000 schools and a deficit of more than 50 000 teachers in Zimbabwe, with the consequent high teacher-pupil ratio, bloated classes, composite classes.”
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He said 65% of secondary and 75% of the primary schools did not have electricity or solar power rendering ineffective research and ICT learning and teaching.
“Worse still the government seems to be insensitive to the brain drain of about 15 000 teachers a year and the declining number of male students in Zimbabwe's teacher training institutions to less than 10%. This decline will compromise the future availability of male teachers and the overall gender diversity within the education sector,” he said.
Zhou said there was an urgent need to focus on status restoration for teachers to enhance quality public education in Zimbabwe amid reports that 15 000 teachers quit the profession each year in search of greener pastures.
Primary and Secondary Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro condemned the teachers for circulating “a series of reckless and unsubstantiated allegations”.
He dismissed the allegations, adding that they were a disservice to the “monumental, unprecedented efforts” being undertaken by President Emmerson Mnangagwa “to rebuild and revolutionise our education sector”.
“We are in the midst of the most aggressive school-building programme in our nation's history. We have constructed over 1 000 new schools in the last few years alone, with hundreds more at various stages of completion,” Ndoro said.
“We are systematically turning every stone and every open field where you see a new school structure is a testament to our commitment.”
