Zimbabwe teachers have bemoaned their poor remuneration and urged parents to push the Government to review their salaries if extra lessons were a burden to their pockets.
The country’s teachers have perennially demanded their employer, the Public Service Commission, to restore their salaries to the pre-October 2018 era, but Government recently gave them a 20 per cent salary increase, US$100 allowance plus other non-monetary benefits.
The teachers have rejected this offer.
A far-cry from their demands, the remuneration of teachers has seen them surviving on extra lessons to supplement to their meagre monthly earnings.
Extra lessons are deemed illegal in the landlocked southern African country of 15 million people.
“We never encourage teachers to conduct extra lessons, we do not condone them. Therefore, parents have an unexplored option of knocking on the government’s doors if they feel short-changed. They must not negotiate down the prices of extra lessons”, said Educators Union of Zimbabwe secretary Tapedza Zhou in an interview with the privately-owned NewsDay.
Singing from the same hymn book with Zhou, Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Obert Masaraure said parents must unite with the teachers in demanding for their improved remuneration.
Masaraure made a scathing attack on the Harare administration which he accused of negligence of duty, through its failure to fund basic education. He said parents and teachers have no obligation to fund education.
“At the end of the day, teachers strive to get something from poor parents, which is very unfortunate”, added Masaraure.
Meanwhile, Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou said there is no need for extra lessons as they bring differences among students dependent on the cash a parent has.
According to Zhou, the best remedy for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Government was to pay teachers well and advise parents to stop dangling the poisoned carrot of extra payment under the guise of conducting extra lessons.
And, in a latest move, Taungana Ndoro, the spokesperson in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education said government was working with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to flush out those charging for extra lessons. Online.
Zwnews
