Plight of teachers worsens in Zimbabwe

AS we grew up we used to hear from our parents of how teachers were respected in the communities. Students would hide at the sight of teachers when up to no good, not out of fear but sheer respect.

But that culture has been eroded and teachers are just ordinary civil servants with diminished standing in our society. They are underpaid and live miserable lives. A cancer that has developed in our Zimbabwean society has been that of the political beating up school teachers as happened after the 2000 and 2005 parliamentary and presidential elections, and more recently the 29 March harmonised elections.

As I write war veterans and ZANU (PF) militias are beating up teachers in front of school pupils and rural communities. This has humiliated teachers and reduced their status as guardians.

The harassment of teachers is affecting the provision of quality education. What has compromised the teachers' welfare is that war veterans and ZANU (PF) militias have been camping at schools which they have turned into torture bases.

Political meetings are being convened at these schools during working hours with teachers and rural villagers forced to attend. Pupils and teachers are forced to attend all night vigils were reports of sexual abuse is taking place. Pupils, 15 years and above, are all ordered to attend.

The teacher/pupil relationship has further deteriorated to its lowest. Respect for the teacher has been lost. For years government has relied on teachers who worked as polling agents during voting. But this time around teachers have been accused of working with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in a regime change agenda.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary-general Raymond Majongwe says more than 400 schools have closed since the post-election violence erupted in the country. At an average school enrolment of five hundred, the projected number of pupils without instruction due to displacement of teachers is two hundred and fifty thousand.

According to figures compiled by PTUZ more than 133 teachers have been assaulted while 1718 have fled their schools. Said PTUZ in a statement: "The perpetrators' message to teachers is consistent; teachers will not be allowed to vote in the perpetrators' communities and will not be enrolled as polling officers in the presidential run-off. They allege that teachers plotted the downfall of ZANU (PF) by going on strike in the pre-29 March election period and influenced the otherwise loyal rural folk to vote for the opposition."

PTUZ says 67 teachers have been hospitalised in Harare, Kotwa, Karoi, Rusape, Bonda, Howard, Guruve, Marondera and many other clinics. The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) president Peter Mabande has advised. teachers to get away from schools where cases of violence have been reported.

PTUZ says teachers in Zimbabwe "believe the SADC and AU are institutions through which regional and continental solidarity is given to the suffering and oppressed Africans. It frustrates teachers to see SADC and AU slowly sliding into institutions of leadership solidarity as opposed to people solidarity.

"When our nationalist leaders say they are reclaiming land from the white community we take it that the land is needed for farming and not to bury us when we die of hunger and politically motivated violence."

In interviews with the press, outgoing Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, Aeneas Chigwedere while acknowledging teachers were being harrassed especially in Mashonaland East and West, and Manicaland provinces blamed both ZANU (PF) and MDC.