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Zimbabwe loses 25 000 teachers as brain drain quickens
Nqobizitha Khumalo, ZimOnline
November 14, 2007

http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2310

BULAWAYO - An alarming 25 000 Zimbabwean school teachers have left the country since January, unhappy over poor pay and working conditions, a teachers union said on Tuesday.

The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), which said it is carrying out an audit of teachers in the country, said out of that total 10 000 teachers had left in the last three months alone despite the government hiking teachers' and other civil servants' salaries in October.

The union said its survey had also revealed that the exodus was no longer limited to mostly junior to middle-ranking teachers, with senior and more experienced educationists such as district education officers and provincial directors also leaving.

"By August 15 000 teachers had left the country. This number is now 25 000 according to a survey we are conducting nationwide," said PTUZ secretary general Raymond Majongwe.

Teachers earn Z$17 million per month, far less than the $21 million an average family of five is estimated to require for basic goods and services per month.

Majongwe said the majority of teachers who quit had been absorbed in neighbouring countries such as Botswana, South Africa and Namibia, with many working as labourers at construction sites in South Africa, which is preparing to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup tournament.

Both Minister of Education Aeneas Chigwedere and his permanent secretary Stephen Mahere were not immediately available for comment on the matter.

However, Chigwedere last week told Parliament that Harare would approach its southern African neighbours to ask them to stop taking Zimbabwe's teachers.

Thousands of skilled workers - including doctors, nurses, engineers and teachers - have been forced abroad by an acute economic recession, critics blame on repression and wrong policies by President Robert Mugabe's government.

Zimbabwe employs about 108 000 teachers but educationists say the country requires about 120 000 fully qualified teachers to ensure effective learning in schools.

All in all, about three million Zimbabweans or a quarter of the country's 12 million people live abroad after fleeing home because of political violence and an economic crisis marked by the world's highest inflation of nearly 8 000 percent, rising unemployment and food shortages.

Mugabe, in power since Zimbabwe's 1980 independence from Britain and seeking another five-year term in polls next year, denies ruining the economy and instead blames his country's troubles on sabotage by his Western enemies.

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