The Sunday News
Sharon Chimenya
Headmasters and their deputies have come up with an eight-paged grievance paper detailing their plight among them a call for a salary review that is in line with the duties they are carrying.
The headmasters noted that under the existing setup, their salary and allowances were almost similar to those of ordinary teachers.
They have now formed a new union of Secondary and Primary school heads – Zimbabwe National Union of School Heads (ZINUSH) meant to spearhead their grievances.
The union had a two-day meeting in Masvingo with its 10 provincial members that constitute the national executive committee and has written to government to consider the salary gap.
Speaking after the meeting Mr Munyaradzi Majoni the Secretary General for ZINUSH said they have agreed to send an eight-page grievance paper to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
“During our two-day meeting we resolved that we take an eight-page grievance paper to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. The grievance paper raises concerns which we think need to be addressed for the effective participation of heads and deputy heads in implementing the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education mandate.”
“One of the issues is that the salaries and allowances for heads and deputy heads both for Primary and Secondary schools, the amount setup is such that salaries between the administration and an ordinary teacher is so insignificant that it does not speak to the magnitude of the responsibilities of these administrators,” he said.
Mr Majoni said that the school heads were calling for a raise also in the retirement package as the high responsibility speaks to the number of years that have been served by the schools heads.
“We also raised the issue to do with the retirement packages for heads and deputy heads as well. Heads and their deputies are members who naturally would have had more experience in service than an ordinary teacher because to become a head you need to have served the ministry for a number of years.”
“When you retire the length of that service should be compensated but we realize in the present circumstance the retirement packages for the heads and deputy heads are so miserable that our members definitely suffer when they leave employment,” he said.
The organization also had a resolution that the Ministry should to waiver the implementation of the Continuous Learning and Assessment Activities (CALA) program during this Covid-19 period and defer it to next year 2022.
