Zimbabwe losing an estimated 300 teachers a month – union reveals

An estimated 300 teachers a month are leaving Zimbabwe in search of greener pastures abroad, the country’s biggest union has revealed.

Sifiso Ndlovu, the CEO of the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association confirmed this in an interview on the BBC Newsday programme.

Ndlovu said the pay given to teachers in Zimbabwe was poor compared to other countries in the Southern African region.

“The average teacher earns a maximum of US$350 [£288] per month. The learners in Zimbabwe are losing the qualified educators who must mentor these learners for the future.

“You can’t replace experience, you have to generate it. The issue of our budget control does not allow us to employ exponentially the numbers of teachers we require for the learners in the country,” he told the BBC.

Some teachers in Zimbabwe are forced to sell sweets to their students to supplement their income as they struggle to survive in the country.

In May this year Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) Vice-President Nokuthula Mpofu spoke about the difficulties facing teachers and the union’s demands for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.

“There is no free education in Zimbabwe. We pay fees for the primary, secondary, tertiary and university sectors,’ she said.

“Many of us have children and it’s not easy. Members are failing to have three meals a day because of the amounts of their salary they are receiving.

“Teachers are now using the schools as their market places. They go to schools to sell sweets, to sell snacks to the learners in order to get money for transport, in order to get money to sustain their living.

“Essential female members, instead of them going to school to sell sweets, we could empower them to do other things like making sandwiches or making scones, you know, to sell things that give them dignity.

“We used to be given the same amount as civil servants, but now what the new government is doing is discriminatory. And when it comes to salary payments, they don’t negotiate. We are just given increments because I think it’s an issue of trying to protect themselves,” Mpofu added.