Unemployed Teachers’ Association, UTA would like to inform its members and world at large on the decision made by the standing Committee of UTA. The standing committee has resolved to amalgamate with the Amalgamated Rural teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe, ARTUZ. After the realization of the efforts by UTA in fighting the struggle of the teachers and on their stance in supporting the incapacitated teachers on strike, ARTUZ decided to create a desk for young teachers and retired teachers in which they appointed the chairperson of UTA. As UTA we welcome this appointment and we are promising our members to use this opportunity to fight for our recognition by the government in pursuit of our jobs, since our schools are under staffed.
We have noted that the government of Zimbabwe is not recognizing our existence as unemployed teachers’ graduates who are ready to execute our duties even in the new curriculum, UTA standing committee accepted this appointment to work with the rural teachers who are facing difficult times in teaching in rural areas where schools are understaffed.
Under our new desk in ARTUZ the unemployed teachers would like to fight for:
- the employment of all unemployed teachers,
- abolition of the biased and covert employment of few connected individuals through nepotism, corruption and political affiliation
- abolition of the slavery system existing in the private education sector where teachers are not assisted but bruised by mere paltry alms that are disbursed to them as remuneration.
- release of college results for teachers who have completed their courses, so that they can pay their debt when they are employed.
- issuing of operating licenses to unemployed teachers to build new schools through the involvement of civil society, churches and other well-wishers
- increment of student teachers’ allowances so that they will able to cater for their requirements.
We were further entrusted with the honorable responsibility of representing the interests of our comrades who have since retired from the profession. This is an unfamiliar territory for us as such we will create a department specifically designed to attend to the pressing needs of the retired teachers’ community.
The desk created at ARTUZ is a fighting desk not a patronage space, we will use it to fight for the best interests of out of service teachers. After employment the UTA members would still have the opportunity to join Unions of their choice.
Source: Unemployed Teachers’ Association (UTA)
