10k teachers resign amid education crisis :PTUZ

More than 10 000 teachers are reported to have resigned between September 28 and December 1 2020 due to the current poor working conditions in the education, PTUZ has revealed.

The continued salary impasse between them and government has forced them to look for other avenues as means of survival.

Over the past months teachers have been demanding payment of salaries in USD to survive the battling economy , however government has been failing to meet that demand.

In a statement Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou said that Fundamentally, teachers have been forced to resign because of cold and calculated educational vandalism of educational and government officials.

“More than 10 000 teachers have resigned from the profession between 28 September and 1 December 2020.”

“ What has irked several teachers is the failure by the gvt to resolve salary discrepancies between teachers and other gvt workers with teachers becoming the poorest of the poor. “

Teachers have been earning paltry salaries which are below the poverty datum line of $ZWL21 000 failing them to afford basic standards of living.

“The inability of teachers to send their own children to access a service they are offering has frustrated many teachers with the consequent exodus in search of greener pastures. “

“Several teachers have turned to artisanal mining, selling sweets, bananas and even airtime as teaching has become so degrading and nauseating, “ he said.

Others have found their way into neighbouring countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia in search of anything of value.

Zhou added that It is unfortunate that those with responsibility of enhancing our education system are deeply engaged in homelitic bellicose than steering the educational ship to stardom.

“The challenge in the education system also calls upon all teachers across the teacher unions’ divide to bury their differences and fight together as brothers and sisters for status restoration.”

“The United Front is not an option but a must for all teachers in 2021. Teachers cannot continue to bank on treacherous Apex Council and hope for better results when a thorn tree has never produced apples., “ Zhou said.