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Massive
teacher exodus rock Zim
The Daily
Mirror (Zimbabwe)
March 21, 2006
http://www.zimmirror.co.zw/daily/index.cfm?
In some cases,
teachers reportedly elect to miss lessons to work as cross border
traders in order to subsidise their salaries.
Parents have
expressed fears that gains made in the education sector since independence
could be eroded if the situation worsened.
The Progressive
Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) confirmed the mass exodus
in the education sector.
PTUZ secretary
general, Raymond Majongwe, said the country was losing between 4
000 and 5 000 teachers a year due to a number of different factors,
chief among them economic.
"The education
sector has been losing between 4 000 and 5 000 teachers yearly when
its 14 colleges can train 5 500, and that is very disturbing. Most
of the teachers are leaving for countries like Lesotho, Swaziland,
Angola, Malawi and Mozambique and the situation this year worsened
between mid-January and now.
"Our research
has shown that on a yearly basis we lose between 500 and 800 teachers
through illness, the same number through transfers within the public
sector and to the insurance sector.
Close to 1
000 teachers also leave to work in the informal sector, sometimes
as cross-border traders, farmers or they just open their own small
companies," Majongwe said. He added that the country also lost
between 1 000 and 1 500 teachers who migrated to other countries
in search for better-paying jobs, even if they were not related
to their qualifications.
Besides migrating
within the region, Zimbabwean teachers have also left the country
for the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA)
and other European countries where they have taken up menial jobs.
Majongwe hailed some teachers whom he said had not deserted the
profession despite the economic hardships obtaining in the country.
He said teachers, however, would only celebrate when their quest
for salaries in line with the poverty datum line (PDL) was met.
The PDL for
the month of February, according to the Consumer
Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) is currently pegged at $28 million.
The Zimbabwe
Teachers’ Association (Zimta) chief executive officer (CEO) Peter
Mabhande could not comment on the issue of the teacher exodus, instead,
referring The Daily Mirror to the education ministry. "That
is the prerogative of the Public Service Commission (PSC), the Ministry
of Education, Sport and Culture who are the employers and the Ministry
of Higher and Tertiary Education, which trains the teachers,"
Mabhande said.
Efforts to get
in touch with education minister Aenias Chigwedere were, however,
fruitless yesterday.
Many rural schools
are reportedly operating understaffed, while some teachers have
delivered their services with little commitment citing poor salaries
as their bone of contention.
After a 230 percent increment awarded by government to all civil
servants in January, a graduate teacher now earns a gross salary
of about $12 million.
President Robert
Mugabe has, however, pledged that the government would soon improve
teachers’ salaries.
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