Teachers on go slow

teachingBULAWAYO - Teachers at several schools here have embarked on a go- slow in protest over paltry salaries.

This comes after negotiations between the government and teachers unions representatives ended in a stalemate last Tuesday. The deadlock was reached after the unions rejected US$236 per month offered by the government for the highest paid teacher. Teachers are currently getting less than US$150 a month.

A survey carried out by The Zimbabwean revealed that most teachers at schools in and around the city were on a go-slow. We will only start working after the government comes up with a better offer, otherwise we are just coming here to sit the whole day, said a teacher at Founders High School who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another teacher at Baines Primary School said: We have decided to embark on a go- slow after we realised that the government was not taking teachers plight seriously. At Milton, Eveline, St Columbus, Townsend and Mzilikazi High Schools, students were seen milling around doing nothing as teachers refused to work.

In a joint statement on Friday the Apex Council, a body that includes the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), said the offer given by the government was not good enough.

The civil servants in Zimbabwe present this common statement to register their displeasure and utter dismay at the paltry offer the government has put forward on January 12. The offer is inadequate, ridiculous and out of sync with the cost of living and therefore unacceptable, read the statement signed by Tendai Chikowore, the Zimta president, and the president of PTUZ, Takavafira Zhou.

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