Teachers' unions write-off 2008 as acadeic year

By Vusumuzi Sifile

THE country’s two main teachers’ unions — the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) — have called for the "complete scrapping off of 2008 from the academic year because it was a wasted year".

Among other things, they want all pupils to repeat their grades next year, as they did not learn anything meaningful this year.

For the first time since their formation, the two organisations on Friday held joint commemorations of World Teachers’ Day, and collectively condemned the government’s continued neglect of the plight of teachers. The event is celebrated worldwide on October 5, but the two organisations decided to hold it two days earlier.

The PTUZ and Zimta have all along rivalled each other, and would negotiate separately for teachers’ working conditions. But on Friday the two unions announced they were now joining forces for teacher emancipation. Modalities of the unity were however still being discussed. They also jointly condemned violence against teachers in the run-up to the disputed one-man presidential election run-off.

"Our coming together must herald a new beginning. Time has come for teachers to bury our differences," said PTUZ Secretary General Raymond Majongwe, deviating from a statement he was reading.

Supporting the call that all students should repeat in the next academic year, Majongwe said: "It is our well considered view that the 2008 school academic year for primary and secondary education should be set aside and that the 2008 examinations should be cancelled. After setting aside the academic year, all students should repeat their current grades."
This, he said, would effectively mean there is no intake for Grade 1, Form 1 and Lower Sixth.
ZIMTA President, Tendai Chikowore said there was need for teachers to "stand up and speak out in order to support those policies which promote the attainment of quality public education".

"As educators, we lament the general declining standards in the provision of quality public education," said Chikowore. "In return for our valued labour, we deserve to be paid salaries commensurate in value to our work. If that does not happen, we will be left with no option but to use our most effective measures to induce some quicker response from the employer to pay us adequate remuneration."

The deteriorating standards at institutions of higher learning, she said, was also compounding the crisis at schools.

"We note, with concern, the falling standards in the preparations of teachers in a situation where there is a critical shortage of qualified lecturers in most teacher training colleges and universities, and where the teaching practice supervisory structure has broken down due to lack of experienced teachers in our schools."

Chikowore called on the "relevant authorities to bring perpetrators of political violence to book". She said this would boost teachers’ confidence.

Giving a solidarity message at the commemorations, Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) Secretary General Wellington Chibebe said the "government has deliberately destroyed the teaching profession".

"Yesteryear teachers were part of the middle class, but today they occupy the lowest position on the radar. You have allowed yourselves to be abused," Chibebe told the teachers.

The Coalition Against Child Labour in Zimbabwe (CACLAZ) commended the two unions for working hard despite "the continuous deterioration of the teachers’ conditions of service over the last few years".

In a statement, CACLAZ said: "These circumstances have regrettably reversed the gains made so far in the education sector which at one time was the envy of many people the world over. At the end of the day the parents, children and the teachers themselves have been robbed of a golden opportunity to reach out to their collective dreams and it is now quite doubtful whether we are ever going to achieve MDG 2 by 2015."

Most teachers have not been reporting for duty since the beginning of the third term last month. Among other things, they are demanding a salary of US$1 200. Many teachers have resorted to holding private lessons for a fee for the same pupils they are supposed to teach at schools. The government, despite not doing much to address the plight of teachers, has ironically lambasted teachers for the practice.