Teacher incentives to stay — Coltart

Chronicle

6 December 2010

By Prosper Ndlovu

TEACHERS’ incentives will not be removed until there is an improvement in their welfare, the Minister of Education, Arts, Sports and Culture, Senator David Coltart said yesterday.

“The issue of incentives is horrible and I know it is not popular with many, I also do not like incentives but there is nothing that I can do to retain teachers from leaving the job,” Sen Coltart said at a social accountability conference organised by the Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) at the Large City Hall in Bulawayo.
“If we stop incentives now, there is going to be a crisis in our schools and teachers would stop working. As long as there is no improvement in the welfare of teachers, we cannot scrap off incentives.”
He challenged Government to improve the welfare of teachers and restore their professional status by paying them competitive salaries.
It is estimated that more than 20 000 trained teachers left the country between 2007 and 2008 citing poor remuneration.
Most teachers in South Africa for instance earn between R8 000 and R10 000 per month while locally they are taking home around US$170.
Senator Coltart said more than 15 000 teachers who had left the profession have been re-engaged. He said Government’s efforts to lure back skilled teachers had to a large extent been successful.
“The Government is working hard to lure back professionals and more teachers continue to come back,” said Sen Coltart.
“More than 15 000 qualified teachers have returned home from the Diaspora and have rejoined the profession.”
The Government early last year announced an amnesty for teachers who had left the profession and hundreds jumped at the opportunity to rejoin the service.
Although he could not reveal the exact figures, Senator Coltart said there was a need to recruit more qualified teachers adding that his ministry has embarked on a data gathering exercise.
Sen Coltart said that has seen the establishment of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) to carry out the exercise. “The statistics we have now do not capture the accurate picture of the situation in our schools and that is why we have set up EMIS to gather the correct information about our enrolment issues in schools and the correct data of the teachers needed,” he said.
“The information we will obtain from this exercise will give us the clue into the correct figures of how many teachers we need as a country.” During the question and answer session, the residents expressed concern over the declining pass rate at schools and challenged the Government to channel more funds in the education sector.
Some called for the abolition of teacher incentives, saying apart from being a burden to parents, the facility was being abused.
They also urged the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture to police the operations of schools to ensure transparency and accountability.
Others said the Government should make policy reforms and establish legislation that would support the disabled among other vulnerable children to be educated without discrimination.