The government continues to make inconsiderate decisions on the education sector. The recent claim by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Ambassador Cain Mathema that there are enough teachers in schools to take examinations classes, is the biggest joke of the century.
From the research that we carried out yesterday by Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, ARTUZ only 2% of the total teachers in the country reported for duty. The number is not enough to teach all examinations classes and invigilate the examinations. Technically Ordinary level students carry an average of ten different subjects and Advanced level students an average of three different subjects. The few teachers that are claimed to be in schools are not trained to teach majority of these subjects, a few teachers in primary schools are inexperienced to prepare grade seven students for examinations, this is exposing the innocent learners to toxic knowledge and killing the education system.
We want to assure all incapacitated teachers to remain calm on the 14 days issue. This is a not an illegal strike whereby you will be charged for not reporting for duty for 14 consecutive days. We are incapacitated, our ability to provide our expected service has been extremely compromised by an employer who is failing to capacitate us as far as the living wage is concerned. If anyone is threatened with a charge, the employer must first seek a show cause order to prove before the Court that our action is illegal, then we will overturn that show cause order because we are not striking but incapacitated. We urge the few teachers who are reporting for duty to stop subsidizing the employer by capacitating yourselves to be at work from expensive loans that will leave you in severe debts.
There’s no learning taking place in schools. We are continuously urging the government to postpone the Zimsec public examinations from 1 December 2020 to March 2021, then we collectively establish an Education Transition Model where we accommodate the current 2020 examination classes from January to March 2021 and the 2021 examination classes learning what they were supposed to cover this year and what they’re supposed to cover in the first quarter of next year. This model prevents learners from repeating the same grade or form at the same time accommodating the first level 2021 ECDs into the education stream. But this can only be done if government restores back our October 2018 monthly salary of USD520 as a motivation for teachers to effectively perform their duties.
Source: Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union in Zimbabwe (ARTUZ)
