The Sunday News
TEACHERS’ incentives were scrapped due to their abuse by school heads and because teachers were shunning rural area deployment as rural communities were paying low levies, a Government circular has revealed.
Teachers’ incentives were introduced by parents during the hyper inflation period in 2008 as a way of retaining teachers who were leaving the country to seek greener pastures.
According to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Circular Number Six of 2014, incentives had to be scrapped because they were fraught with many challenges which include uneven distribution and poor service delivery.
“The teacher’s incentives are unevenly distributed. Teachers in rural areas earn less than their urban counterparts due to the low levies paid in their communities,” reads section 2.0, item (ii) of the circular.
Item (iii) and (vi) of the same section read: “Owing to this uneven distribution of incentives, some new teacher graduates are shunning rural area deployment preferring to be deployed in urban areas where better incentives are paid.
“Teacher incentives are being abused. According to the secretary’s circular minute No 5 of 2009 only 10 percent of the collected levies at a school was supposed to be paid to teachers as incentives. However, several audit reports have revealed that many schools have been paying more than 10 percent of levies as incentives.”
The circular also states that there was little or no development at some schools as the levies were channelled towards teacher incentives and also these incentives were not based on merit.
There have been reports of irregularities, the circular says, in the payment of incentives with some school heads paying less to teachers with whom they have personal differences.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive officer, Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said the scrapping of incentives was long overdue, as the teacher’s union had earlier warned Government over the move.
Teacher’s incentives, he said, were unsustainable and divisive.
Said Mr Ndlovu: “We told Government at the time incentives were being introduced that the system was unsustainable. We made it clear that incentives were divisive and the poor could not manage to pay incentives. Some teachers in rural areas went for the whole year without being paid while their urban counterparts were being paid.
“The issue of incentives was contentious because it was divisive. This led to a polarised society in terms of education. These incentives were iniquitous, unsustainable and divisive. It was indeed a wrong policy. These incentives were an evil, not a blessing at all.
“The whole system was wrong because funding must be that of Government. Parents were not supposed to fund schools or teachers. The constitution calls for education for all and payment of incentives deprived pupils whose parents were poor the right to education, as they could not afford to pay incentives.”
Mr Ndlovu’s views are incorporated in the circular which states that teacher’s incentives were unevenly distributed. Teachers in rural areas earned less than their urban counterparts due to the low levies paid in their communities.
He, however, said teacher’s salaries were not enough and there was a need for a wide consultation from key stakeholders that are Government, teachers, parents and pupils on the best way to pay teachers.
“Even if we are happy about the cancellation of teacher’s incentives, we still feel that there is a need to find a solution on how best teachers can get better remuneration,” said Mr Ndlovu.
“All stakeholders must be consulted so that they air their views. Pupils are key stakeholders who should be included because they might demand that parents should pay incentives because teachers teach better when they get incentives.”
Repeated efforts to get a comment from Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary general, Raymond Majongwe, were fruitless as his mobile number kept ringing without being answered and the national co-ordinator, Enock Paradzayi, was not reachable for comment.
President of the Zimbabwe School Development Association and Committees (ZSDA/C), Mr Xolisani Dlamini’s mobile phone also went unanswered.
