Prime Minister’s Newsletter
www.zimbabweprimeminister.org
2nd September 2009
Schools are opening on Wednesday for the third term under the veil of a pay strike threat by the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA). We interviewed the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart (DC) to find out more about the situation in public schools.
Q: Are you happy with the pace of recovery in the education sector since you took over six months ago?
DC: Whilst we have had some major breakthroughs in terms of getting schools open and teachers back to school, the situation remains fragile as demonstrated this week by the ZIMTA decision to strike. Teachers are not being paid enough. They are paid way below what other teachers are paid in South Africa. In other areas as well, the situation is still very grave. Our textbook-pupil ratios are very poor. In most of our schools the ratios are at least 15 pupils to one textbook. In some schools, the only textbook in the classroom is one held by the teacher. If you visit most Government schools you will find that the infrastructure is dilapidated. We see in essence two decades of neglect, two decades of insufficient money being paid to the education sector.
Q: How much do you need to return the education sector to where it was two decades ago?
DC: Let’s take textbooks for example. We need US$90 million just to get three pupils to share one book. The ideal situation of course is to get that ratio down to one textbook to one pupil and that would cost US$200 million, just the textbooks. To rehabilitate the whole infrastructure, just to do a basic rehabilitation of Government schools will cost at least a billion US dollars. If we are to pay our teachers a viable salary, that alone will cost between US$30 and US$40 million a month. So we are looking at huge figures that the Government cannot afford at the moment. The money we have now is a pittance compared to our requirements. The teacher salary bill is in the region of US$12 million a month. So, you see from these figures that we need double or treble what we have now.
Q: To what extent do constant threats of industrial action by teachers affect recovery efforts?
DC: If teachers don’t return to work then the sector is back to square one. Whilst Minister of Finance Tendai Biti and I are very sympathetic to the plight of teachers, the fact of the matter is that this is a transitional Government trying to recover the economy from a devastating downfall caused by very bad policies over two decades. Much as we would like to pay teachers more than they are getting now, we simply can’t afford it and this is the tragedy of the situation. Everyone has had to tighten their belts and teachers to that extent are no different from the vast majority of other people in the country. But through their actions, if they don’t go back to the classroom, they are going to jeopardise the lives of the next generation of children who are completely innocent.
Q: Why is it difficult for organisations such as ZIMTA to understand your situation?
DC: I don’t want to paint all the teachers with the same brush. As we have seen, the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe understands the situation. They are suffering as much as those teachers under ZIMTA. But they understand that we are trying our best to remedy the situation and I would hope that ZIMTA would demonstrate similar maturity and patriotism. But I believe that the vast majority of teachers have demonstrated patriotism and I hope that teachers will still turn out for work in the interests of children. It is extremely important however, that they must be satisfied that we are going to do everything possible to alleviate their plight. That is the commitment I give and it’s the commitment that Minister Biti has given.
Q: But is this commitment shared by your colleagues in Government, for example in terms of spending and prioritisation?
DC: This is the real challenge. Minister Biti has made it very clear that education and health are his priorities. The question is; are we going to get a broad consensus in Cabinet to back that commitment? The money for education has to come from somewhere yet the cake is not getting that much bigger. So we have to cut the cake in a different way and that means certain sectors are going to have to be cut back. We will have to cut back on certain other ministries. We will have to cut back on the size of Government and on the luxuries that senior people in Government have become accustomed to over the last three decades. These are hard choices that we will have to make. If we are to persuade teachers that they must cut back and sacrifice, then leaders must demonstrate that they are doing the same. That, in turn, may bond a patriotic sense that we are all working together and making sacrifices in the national good.
Q: Is the Government still pursuing teachers who had fled economic and political problems to settle for menial jobs in neighbouring countries?
DC: One of the legitimate issues raised by ZIMTA was the tardiness in processing the application of teachers to be re-engaged. That has been a matter of deep concern to me. I announced an amnesty for teachers who had left the profession months ago, and yet we still have blockages in the system. I have been issuing further directives in the last month to our administrators saying they must do all in their power to process these applications and salaries fast. In fact in the last week I have implemented further measures. Within the next month or so, we might see those blockages removed and those teachers reintegrated into the system. We lost 20 000 teachers in 2007 and 2008 and we need to attract those teachers back into the profession.
Q: How many teachers do you have in the system and how many do you require?
DC: The establishment caters for over 140 000 teachers. We estimate that we have got between 80 000 and 90 000 teachers. That means there is considerable room to increase the number of teachers. The recommended teacher-pupil ratio in Government schools is forty to one. My National Advisory Board has produced a survey and one of the surprising results of that survey is that we have got high percentages of teachers. In fact the pupil-teacher ratios coming out of the survey is 36 to one. Now, what that means is that it appears we have got a lot less children in our system than we used to have. That may of course be due to the fact that over three million Zimbabweans are in the Diaspora and presumably a lot of children with them there as well. Another factor is that we have many children who can no longer afford to go to school. But we have got to balance all these different factors.
Q: Could you update us on the textbook grant by UNICEF targeting disadvantaged schools?
DC: Yes, I am just about to announce a massive textbook fund. I have been working very closely with UNICEF and donor countries and we have had a lot of success. I have been working closely with the local publishing houses and printing houses as well for the printing of the textbooks.I need to stress that my attitude from day one has been to try to ensure that money from donors is going to be used in Zimbabwe. We should be able to print as many of the books in Zimbabwe as possible. This is going to be a massive program that will unfold over the next five months. We are looking at trying to deliver literally millions of textbooks by the first term of 2010. We have set ourselves very high goals. Through this program I hope I will be able to reduce the shocking textbook ratios in our schools.
Q: Has your Ministry investigated reports that militias have again set bases at rural schools?
DC: I haven’t been able to verify these reports. But what I have done is to issue a statement to all 7 000 Government schools stating that schools are educational institutions and they are to be used solely for educational issues. I have banned the use of schools by any partisan political groups. It would not surprise me though if that directive has not been fully implemented. If need be, I intend to introduce changes to the law to make it very clear that schools are to be solely used for education. I hope in that way we might be able to get rid of the presence of militia from our schools so that we create a conducive atmosphere for learning.