Attach qualifications to incentives, says Zimta

Teachers in Zimbabwe have called on the government to consider reviewing their working conditions before attaching qualifications to the profession affected by years of neglect.

Primary and Secondary Education minister Torerai Moyo last week encouraged teachers to upgrade their qualifications to remain relevant to the demands of the ever advancing world.Moyo said by upgrading themselves, teachers would benefit from the manpower development leave that is set to be resuscitated.

However, Zimbabwe Teachers Association secretary-general Goodwill Taderera said there was nothing unusual about changes in qualification.

He said schools in the past used to have temporary teachers with learners performing well.

"The issue is that whenever there is an upgraded qualification then we expect that teachers should get better salaries. You cannot just demand high qualifications without having to compensate for them. Teachers spend a lot of money and even as we speak we have doctors who are actually in the classrooms," he said.

Taderera said the government should allow for parallel progression where teachers earn salaries that are equal to headmasters' provided they had the qualification and experience.

"We do not want to have a situation where the ministry just demands results without also advocating a better salary," he said.

"We have people who did not even go to school but they are earning more money than the teachers because they are self-employed and doing things that do not require qualifications."

He called for Moyo to include other variables to his suggestions.

"We have teachers with high qualifications but they are not getting anything commensurate with their investment in education.

"The ministry should attach the reward to the improvement as it will be pointless to invest in education and fail to invest on your retirement," he said.