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Government schools deserted as 10 000 teachers go AWOL in second term
Fikile Mapala, ZimDaily
May 27, 2007

http://zimdaily.com/news/117/ARTICLE/1675/2007-05-18.html

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) revealed to ZimDaily that the situation in the ministry has reached alarming levels and ministry officials were in panic mode after the discovery that thousands of teachers were absent without official leave from their stations since schools opened a week ago.

A survey by ZimDaily in Harare and Bulawayo showed that in several primary and secondary schools most classes were unattended because of the absence of teachers who have not reported for duty ever since schools opened.

Several schools were operating with less than half of the required staff compliment resulting in a chaotic situation obtaining in most of these schools, as children were unattended.

The headmaster of Dziwarasekwa 2 High School in Harare a Mr Mahomva told ZimDaily that at his school 34 teachers had not reported for duty at the beginning of the term.

The head teacher also revealed that the teachers could not be replaced since it was not clear whether they had resigned or were not feeling well or still coming.

Mufakose 1 High reported that 24 teachers were missing, while Glen Norah 2 High had 33 teachers missing.
In Chitungwiza Chinembiri Primary School had 14 teachers missing while at Seke 1 High School 21 teachers had not reported for duty.

Another 18 teachers did not report for duty at Seke 2 High in Chitungwiza.

The District Education Officer for Chitungwiza District a Mr Tasaranarwo confirmed to ZimDaily that several teachers in the district had gone AWOL at the start of the second term.

"We are receiving reports from headmasters that some of our teachers have not yet reported for duty since last week Tuesday. We are not sure why but reports are still coming from headmasters", said the education officer.
Tasaranarwo revealed that 2 250 out of 4 100 teachers were missing from his district of 52 schools.

In Bulawayo 34 teachers were missing at Mzilikazi High School, 20 at Gifford High and 28 at Founders High.
Reports say another 31 were missing at Mpopoma High in Zimbabwe's second largest city.

The PTUZ coordinator for Bulawayo Province Enock Paradzayi told ZimDaily that his visits around schools had shown that less than half of the teachers in the province had reported for duty.

"Most of the schools that I have visited are almost deserted. I have visited 29 schools so far and the situation is bad. Students are losing important learning time because teachers are simply not there.

Some are said to be on indefinite sick leave while others have just gone AWOL according to the headmasters here in Bulawayo. Most of them are our members and we are also worried", said the PTUZ official.

The PTUZ officials told ZimDaily that most of the teachers were leaving the country because of poor working conditions and paltry salaries offered by government.

The secretary general of the PTUZ Raymond Majongwe said it was unfortunate that the country was losing its experienced teachers to neighboring countries because of poor salaries and working conditions in the ministry.

"To say teachers in Zimbabwe are earning peanuts is an understatement. Our teachers have been impoverished by the ZANU PF regime.

President Robert Mugabe himself can testify that he used to earn much better as a teacher in Rhodesia under Garfield Todd. This is worse than colonialism", said Majongwe.

A teacher in Zimbabwe earns about Z$500 000 which is equivalent to US$20 per month.

The salary is far below the country's Poverty Datum Line (PDL) currently pegged at $1.7 million.

Impeccable sources at the education ministry head offices situated at Ambassador House in central Harare told ZimDaily that so far 10 004 teachers from ten provinces had resigned or not reported for duty when schools opened for the second term.

The permanent secretary in the ministry of education Stephen Mahere also confirmed that the ministry had lost a large number of teachers this term.

"We are losing a lot of teachers every term because of various reasons. Some are resigning because of ill health, some are dying while some are leaving for greener pastures elsewhere. This school term is no exception", said the education secretary.

Mahere added that shortage of teachers in Harare and Bulawayo was reaching crisis levels although his ministry was making frantic efforts to deal with the situation.

Most of the teachers who have not reported for duty this term are said to have left the country for greener pastures in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Australia, Canada, USA and UK among other countries.

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