The Standard
22nd February 2009
By Nqobani Ndlovu
BULAWAYO – The government will this week ask donors to provide US$80
million in emergency funds to pay teachers amid indications schools might
finally re-open after one of the longest job boycotts in the country’s
history.
Teachers have been on strike since last year demanding payment in
foreign currency.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) painted a grim picture of
the state of affairs saying about 94% of Zimbabwe’s rural schools, where
most children are educated, failed to open this year.
The new Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, David Coltart said
the new government had set the re-opening of schools and the revamping of
the education sector as one of its top priorities.
Tomorrow, he will meet some donors in a bid to resolve the impasse in
the education sector.
“I have organised a donors’ meeting on Monday where I will table an
emergency budget to bring back teachers to our schools,” Coltart said.
“The US $80 million emergency budget is for the next four to six
months and it’s primarily for salaries of teachers and markers.
“We will at the same meeting table a total budget of the amount of
funding that we require his year. We are still working on the figures.”
Zimbabwean requires more than 200 000 teachers to function normally
but most of them have deserted the profession due to poor pay and
deteriorating working conditions.
Representatives from the European Commission and other United Nations
agencies among other major donors with offices in the country would attend
the meeting.
Last month, then acting Minister of Education, Sport and Culture,
Aneas Chigwedere and the Permanent Secretary, Stephen Mahere invited the
wrath of teachers after they boycotted a meeting organised by donors to
address the crisis.
Coltart, who assumed office last week said Unicef had already made a
“huge” donation of exercise books that would be distributed within the next
three weeks.
The Zimbabwe Teachers Union (Zimta) and the Progressive Teachers Union
of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), who appear to have softened their stance after meeting
Coltart last week said they would consult their membership before commenting
on the way forward.
Raymond Majongwe, PTUZ boss had vowed that teachers would not go back
towork until their demands had been addressed.
They said a decision to return work could be taken after tommorow’s
meeting. But sources said most teachers were now keen to return to work
after government promised them salaries of US$100.
“At the moment, we can not give an official comment concerning our
position but our leaders in various provinces are currently holding
consultations with our members on the way forward,” said Oswald Madziva, the
PTUZ secretary general.
Paul Gundani, the Zimta secretary general Richard Gundani said Coltart
had pleaded with them to give government time to mobilise resource to pay
decent salaries.
The unions also want the government to revise the school calendar,
which officially began on January 27.
Coltart predicted that the sector once regarded as one of the best in
sub-Saharan Africa but has become a casualty of the country’s economic
collapse would take at least two years to recover.
The Senator for Kumalo in Bulawayo and also MDC-M secretary for legal
affairs said one of the measures the government would take to revive the
sector would be to send untrained teachers back for training.
These include graduates from the notorious Border Gezi training
programme who were given preferential access to civil service jobs.
Some of them, critics argue do not even have basic academic
requirements like Ordinary and Advanced Level qualifications.
Zanu-PF defended the programme saying it is meant to instil
patriotism, discipline and appreciation of Zimbabwean culture.
Entrepreneurial skills were supposed to be part of the national
service programme.
However, military training, denouncement of the opposition and ruling
party slogan chanting took up most of their training time.
“We will be reviewing the policy with regard to teachers who came from
Border Gezi training centres,” Coltart said.
“Those teachers are not properly trained. Our goal is that we should
have only qualified teachers at schools.
However, Coltart ruled out radical reforms such as re-introducing the
Cambridge examinations to replace those administered by the Zimbabwe School
Examinations Council (Zimsec).
He said Cambridge examinations would be too expensive to run.
Teacher unions say 2008 was a wasted academic year with final
examinations for primary, secondary, college and university almost failing
to take off because of chaos bedevilling the sector.
In the 1980’s to 1990’s, the country had the highest literacy rate in
Africa estimated at over 80%.