The militant Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said a 1 200 percent salary hike awarded teachers in August was inadequate and they would continue boycotting classes until they are given more cash to cushion them from an economic crisis highlighted by the world’s highest inflation of more than 11 million percent.
The union called on the new government of national unity agreed by President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara to expedite resolution of the crisis in the country’s once respected education sector.
“What in reality can the package (latest salary hike) do in light of sky-rocketing prices of basic needs, accommodation, transport, education and health costs?” the union said in statement.
“Whosoever becomes the new education minister must expedite the resolution of the current education impasse so that some semblance of normalcy is established to enable pupils to write their examinations with minimum obstacles this year,” it added.
Education ministry permanent secretary Stephen Mahere yesterday declined to comment on the matter. But the government said at the weekend that it was working flat out to improve teachers and other civil service salaries.
Most schools in the country’s cities and towns have been turning away pupils because teachers were on strike.
Mugabe will remain president while Tsvangirai and Mutambara will become prime minister and deputy prime minister respectively under the power-sharing deal that has been as the first real opportunity in nearly 10 years for crisis-sapped Zimbabwe to end its long running political and economic crisis.
But the fragility of the pact was brought to the fore when the three leaders could not name a new Cabinet on Thursday because they could not agree on how to share the key posts in the new government.
The deadlock over posts has been referred to a team of negotiators drawn from Mugabe’s ZANIU PF party and the two formations of the opposition MDC party.
However, this could mean further delays before a new government is appointed to deal with urgent crises such as strikes by teachers and doctors that have paralysed the public health and education sectors.
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a severe economic crisis that has manifested itself in rampant inflation, massive joblessness and poverty.
Thousands of teachers have quit their jobs in the country to look for menial jobs mostly in South Africa, Zimbabwe’s prosperous southern neighbour while others have gone as far as Britain and Australia. – ZimOnline