Schools unlikely to open this week

THE government on Friday failed to commit itself to paying civil servants in foreign currency, ending hopes that striking teachers would return to work.Government announced that schools will open on Tuesday.
The APEX Council made up of the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) and the Public Service Association, representing the rest of the civil service said the government failed to offer their members anything concrete at the crucial meeting of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC).
Teachers who have been on strike since last year demanding better pay immediately vowed not to return to work until their demands were met.
They now want to be paid in foreign currency with a minimum salary pegged at US$2 300.
The government has already been forced to delay the start of the new term by two weeks because of mounting problems in the education sector.
“Regrettably, the conditions that have incapacitated the workers from delivering service as expected continue to affect our members,” Zimta president Tendai Chikowore told journalists after the meeting.
“The workers have neither the financial resources to travel to work nor to sustain themselves.”
Chikowore, who also chairs the APEX council, said they would “continue to fail to report for duty due to circumstances emanating from incapacitation”.
Educationists said despite the government’s insistence that schools and colleges would open this week, developments on the ground pointed to a chaotic situation in the sector.
They warned schools were not ready for the new term, and going ahead would only disadvantage learners.
The challenges that forced schools to close prematurely last year have worsened this year. In addition, Grade VII results have not yet been published, which makes it impossible for all secondary schools to enrol Form Is this year.
The country’s biggest teachers’ unions — the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and Zimta — were unanimous that schools could not open under the current circumstances.
Delays by government in approving proposals by schools to charge fees in foreign currency have also worsened the situation, with parents still unsure how much their children would be required to pay two days before the proposed start of the term.
PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou said teachers would not go back to work until they were paid in foreign currency.
This month they were paid between Z$20 trillion and $50 trillion, depending on experience and qualifications.
“Unless our demands are met,” he said, “teachers will not go back to work and parents should not waste their hard-earned money paying fees for the first term.
“If they pay, they should pay knowing very well that we are not going to teach.”
Zhou said 70 000 out of Zimbabwe’s 150 000 teachers had not communicated their resignation by mid-last year.
He said 40% of those who remained were unqualified temporary teachers or youth militias, recruited to fill the gap.
Oswald Madziva, the PTUZ spokesperson, said the government lacked public support on the opening of schools and could only proceed on the strength of its “traits of arrogance, lack of consultation and accountability”.
PTUZ also accused the government of failing “to give enough information to the donor community so that it could make adequate interventions”.
Meanwhile, tertiary institutions that were expected to open tomorrow are set to face the same disruptions, with students vowing to resist paying fees in foreign currency.
“We express our deep anger and disappointment to the government on the collapse of our country’s education system,” said Blessing Vava, spokesperson of the Zimbabwe National Students Union.
“Schools and colleges are opening at a time when there is a proposal to force students to pay astronomical fees in foreign currency which is out of reach of many.
“We urge students to remain resilient and boycott paying fees in foreign currency and we demand that we pay in local currency because our parents are not earning in foreign currency.”
On Wednesday last week, students at the country’s premier education institution, the University of Zimbabwe, went on a rampage protesting against the proposed foreign currency fees.