HARARE Education Minister David Coltart Coltart said: “Donors have told me that this country is a bottomless pit and they will not support anything until the GPA is fully implemented. They will not give us a cent even for teachers salaries. They have however said they are willing to give us 13 million text books for primary school children next year. We will only get money to pay teachers in the 2011 National budget.”??
Coltart was responding to enquiries from members of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) who met in Harare last week.
ZIMTA President Tendai Chikowore told Coltart that teachers were unhappy that money raised from the Chiadzwa diamond field was disappearing into individuals pockets when this could be used to pay teachers and other civil servants.
The lowest paid civil servants, among them teachers, earn about US$236 a month. In February, the government employees downed tools demanding that the cash-strapped government increase salaries to at least US$600 for the lowest paid worker.
The industrial action, however, fizzled out after indications the government was technically broke.
Post published in: News