BY STAFF REPORTER
Zimbabwean teachers are feeling demotivated and undervalued due to meager salaries, which have resulted in underperformance and a shortage of qualified educators in schools.
According to a press statement by the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA), “Overworking Teachers, underpaying Teachers and Undervaluing Teachers, has resulted in demotivation and underperformance of educators.”
Teachers in Zimbabwe have long been struggling to make ends meet due to their meager salaries, which have not kept pace with inflation.
The situation has been exacerbated by the current economic crisis, which has seen prices soar and the value of the local currency plummet.
The organization highlights the pressing need to engage educators through social dialogue to address the challenges faced in the profession.
“This theme, ‘Valuing teacher voices: towards a new social contract for education,’ highlights to us a pressing need to engage educators through social dialogue, with a view to addressing the challenges we face in the profession,” ZIMTA says.
ZIMTA calls on the government to increase funding to public education and to allocate the mandatory minimum of 20% of the national budget to the education sector.
“We call on our government to increase its pace in employing more qualified teachers in schools in order to cover the existing teacher deficit in our public schools,” the organization says.
As Zimbabwe celebrates World Teachers’ Day, ZIMTA’s statements highlight the urgent need for the government to address the demotivation and underpayment of teachers, which is having a devastating impact on the education system.