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'Give rural teachers hardship allowance,' says ZIMTA

by Staff reporter
09 Jan 2017 at 18:32hrs | Views

The 2017 academic year for primary and secondary education kicks off this Tuesday with Zimbabwe Teachers Association calling on the government to ensure that rural teachers get hardship allowances for the level of risk they face, especially during the rainy season.

As the 2017 academic year kicks off this Tuesday, the focus for Zimbabwe Teachers Association is increasingly turning to rural school teachers who face various challenges in their execution of duties.

ZIMTA chief executive officer Sifiso Ndlovu says it is in the interest of the national goals that the government implements the payment of a hardship allowance as an incentive to keep rural teachers in those schools which have unfavourable working conditions.

"At the present moment the issue of hardship allowance exists on paper, but in practice there is no money coming into the pockets of the teachers but the agreement is there.

"The government is always talking about lack of fiscal space and we are encouraging them to address very seriously if we are to achieve goals of quality public education and attain all by 2030," says Mr Ndlovu.

Poor accommodation, long distances to work stations, poor transport network and the life threatening risks caused by the extreme weather patterns such as flooding and hail are some of the risks faced by rural teachers, hence the hardship allowance.

The teachers association is, however, optimistic that the government will recruit more teachers to reduce the teacher pupil ratio which in some cases is currently pegged at 1:65 in rural schools.

The country has a shortfall of 2 000 schools in both rural and urban areas.

Source - zbc