ZUPA bids to recruit temporary teachers for Government

Bulawayo - On the 1st February 2011, ZUPA started a campaign to have teaching assistants or temporary teachers reintroduced in Zimbabwe. The campaign was in line with our objects as a non-political organisation whose mandate is to assist unemployed people assert their economic and social rights through employment.

We began then, to engage the responsible stakeholders in the hope that one day, they would agree that temporary teachers in the massively brain drained Zimbabwe would be an acceptable way forward. After almost a year of patiently and quietly knocking on doors, the Government of Zimbabwe has lifted the ban on temporary teachers.

For us, we were inspired in the campaign by the thousands of CVs from highly educated but unemployed Zimbabweans who wanted jobs in teaching. We were also listening to member parents who complained that the standard of teaching had gone down due to schools not having teachers. We were also thinking of a way of addressing the anomaly where teachers found themselves forcibly deployed in areas and schools far away from their own districts of origin, teaching primary school children whose first language or and culture they did not understand.

The announcement a few days ago by Government that they are lifting the ban on temporary teachers has therefore been cause for celebration in the ZUPA structures throughout the country. Ours is not a victory for our members, but a victory for the Zimbabwean people. For every employed Zimbabwean, 13 souls stand to benefit.

ZUPA would like to thank and congratulate the Government of Zimbabwe for listening to the concerns of the ordinary citizens.

We have now written to the Ministries of Education and Public Service, reminding that our work as ZUPA is to compliment the work of Government for the benefit of the millions of unemployed Zimbabweans. We have therefore requested that since ZUPA is structured to have representation in all the wards in Zimbabwe and we already hold a huge database of CVs of unemployed people interested in working in teaching, ZUPA be commissioned to be the employment agency in charge of recruiting the temporary teachers.

It is our view that the best way to recruit the temporary teachers is through the ZUPA structures at provincial and ward level. Our aim is that the local communities through the ward councils are involved in the recruitment process. These are the communities who know and understand the needs of their children and follows modern models where school governors are in charge of staff recruitment in Europe.

ZUPA was formed to ensure that Zimbabweans get jobs and we believe that due to other pressing issues of scarcity of resources, Public Service personnel and Education ministry personnel time may be better spent elsewhere rather than in recruitment.

The Ministry of Public Service has already expressed challenges in dealing with "ghost workers" indicating problems of a centralised approach. On the other hand, the Ministry of Education is facing a challenge given the recent admission that they may not know how many schools Zimbabwe has, or the number of children or indeed teachers needed. ZUPA will be able to ascertain the exact number through wards.

We now ask those Zimbabweans who have not yet submitted their CVs to their ZUPA provincial leadership to do so before the recruitment process is corrupted or politicised.

In our original campaign for the reintroduction of temporary teachers in Zimbabwe, we asked that once temporary teachers are locally recruited, their experience should be the ticket to gaining a place at the local teacher training college.

We ask the Provincial Education officers and school headmasters to co-operate with ZUPA in working out staffing needs and monitoring the recruitment exercise.

ZUPA appreciates the economic difficulties in Zimbabwe born out of the crisis. We are aware of the reasons why teachers are considering going on strike and believe that in the year of mature politics, we can suggest solutions that are sustainable.

We believe as ZUPA that those teachers who were forcibly deployed to districts far away from their own should be allowed to transfer to their districts of origin including swapping.

We take the view that being close to their families will minimise costs of travelling and accommodation. There is better quality of life if someone is living rent free in their family home and is able to travel a short distance to work than being 800 kilometres away from "home" and living in poor conditions.

We further believe that if teachers are recruited in their own areas of origin, this will be helpful in reducing school drop outs because the teachers understand the culture and are part of the community.

There is also growing evidence that teachers are likely to remain at work if they see themselves as serving a community they are emotionally attached to than if they are forced to work in harsh conditions in an area they would rather not be in. We are also of the view that the local communities may be involved more if the teachers are also members of that community.

This arrangement although simple may result in an increase in the pick up of children in need of BEAM and assistance as there will be more trust and co-operation between schools and the local communities.

In a year of maturity, we remain hopeful that the Ministry of Public Service will accept our offer to assist our members and nation.