Zim education crisis exposed on opening day

ZIMBABWE’S schools failed to open on Monday as Zimbabwe’s education crisis explodes. Teachers stuck to their guns and refused to report for duty.

Learners are also battling to make it to schools and those who managed to make it to the classroom were turned back as there were no teachers to attend to them. Some schools literally had no one to open the school gates and remained closed.

Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) sampled slightly above 10% of Zimbabwe’s 6 797 primary schools, 720 schools were visited nationally.

Ten primary schools were visited in each of the 72 education districts of Zimbabwe. 3 798 teachers (5%) were sampled from the total primary teacher population of 75 960. 52 teachers being interviewed per district.

At secondary school, 2 392 teachers (5%) were sampled from the 47 839 total teacher population, 33 were interviewed from each of the 72 education districts. 298 schools (10%) were sampled from the 2 980 secondary schools. Four secondary schools were visited per each education district.

It is apparent that no teaching and learning is taking place in over 96% of our schools.

Some of the teachers, who reported for duty, were saying they would not report for duty anymore since they were overwhelmed by work.

Teachers, who will continue reporting for duty, are those receiving incentives from parents.

Artuz did not gather statistics of learner attendance because there were no teachers to complete learners’ attendance registers.

Some district leaders conducted random interviews with parents who claimed that they were failing to raise money for fees and learning materials.

The teachers are failing to make it to the school, learners are struggling to make it to the classroom and schools remain closed. A solution is needed urgently.

Recommendations

Artuz has long made the following recommendations to government:

● All stakeholders dialogue to find solutions to the education crisis.

● Restoration of pre-October 2018 salaries for teachers, US$540.

● Education recovery grants for all schools.

● State-funded basic education.

● Enhancing capacity of schools to adhere to standard operating procedures.

Artuz implores Finance minister Mthuli Ncube to dump the ruinous austerity measures and rescue the education sector from collapse.

Ncube is committing academic genocide and destroying a whole generation.

Barring the poor from accessing education is a sure recipe for entrenching inequality and sow seeds of future conflict.

He is working round the clock to frustrate efforts to attain Zimbabwe’s vision 2030, Sadc’s Vision 2050, Africa Union’s 2063 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goal 4.

Artuz is engaging parents and communities across the country, strengthening our parents teacher associations.

Artuz firmly believes that both the teacher and the parent have been systematically dispossessed of their political power to make decisions about Zimbabwe’s education.

The two parties should therefore work in unison to reclaim the power to decide the future of education. The parent-teacher coalition must make Zimbabwe ungovernable until the education crisis is resolved.

Artuz further calls upon learners to rise and defend the right to education. Learners are not hopeless victims but fighters in their own right.

The stories of learners, who led Soweto uprisings in South Africa and those who swapped the pen for the gun during the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe, should inspire the current generation of learners.

We encourage sister unions in the Federation of Zimbabwe Educators Unions to press on until teachers’ demands are met.

Congratulations to the teachers of Zimbabwe for demonstrating unity and boldness in the face of austerity and a repressive State. Going forward, we encourage teachers to resist any form of bullying and deceit from the State.

The old no-work no-pay threat should be flatly ignored. The poisoned carrot of being told by yellow unions to go to work while negotiations continue should be rejected with the contempt it deserves.

Teachers and parents should brace for physical protests as we seek to urgently restore the dignity of the classroom.