Skip to main content

Zimbabwe Teachers Threaten Class Boycott

By Ish Mafundikwa
Harare
07 July 2009

Zimbabwe

A Zimbabwean teachers' union is threatening to boycott classes every Friday if a number of their grievances including low pay are not addressed.

Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou announced the intended boycott at a press conference in Harare.

"We resolve to boycott classes and stay away from schools on Fridays beginning the 10th and 17th of July 2009. We will further boycott classes and stay away from schools on every Thursday and Friday starting on the 23rd of July if government does not respond to our action by the 17th of July 2009," Zhou said.






In addition to the boycotts, Zhou said teachers would march in all urban centers on the Fridays they would not be at work.

Zhou said his union has been pushed to act because the government had shown bad faith by not meeting any of the promises agreed to when the teachers went back to work earlier this year.

Some agreements, such as the re-hiring of teachers who had left the service with no questions asked have now been reversed. Some of those teachers who had taken up the offer, he noted, are now being asked to stop work while they are being in his words "vetted" by the government. Another issue of major concern to the teachers Zhou said is the alleged deployment of ZANU-PF militia at schools by the ministry of youth.

"We are also disturbed by the presence of youth militias in schools and the militarization of the ministry of education through the appointment of former state security officers at head office as well as heads of schools," Zhou said.

Zhou said the deployment of the youth militia is particularly worrying as the youths are blamed for some of the violence that accompanied last year's general election campaign. President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party has accused teachers of being supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change led by Morgan Tsvangirai who is now prime minister in the unity government.

Teachers returned to work in March after agreeing on a monthly salary of $100. The PTUZ says the agreement was that teachers' pay would be reviewed every month but to date this has not been done. Attempts to get comment from the ministry of education were unsuccessful.


Rate Me on BlogHop.com!

the best
pretty good
okay
pretty bad
the worst
help?

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chinese

Identifying someone in Indonesia as a member of the Chinese ( orang Tionghoa ) ethnic group is not an easy matter, because physical characteristics, language, name, geographical location, and life-style of Chinese Indonesians are not always distinct from those of the rest of the population. Census figures do not record Chinese as a special group, and there are no simple racial criteria for membership in this group. There are some people who are considered Chinese by themselves and others, despite generations of intermarriage with the local population, resulting in offspring who are less than one-quarter Chinese in ancestry. On the other hand, there are some people who by ancestry could be considered halfChinese or more, but who regard themselves as fully Indonesian. Furthermore, many people who identify themselves as Chinese Indonesians cannot read or write the Chinese language. Alth...
Post a Comment
Read more

ASEAN pushes for resumption of N. Korea nuke talks

ASEAN and friends: Foreign Ministers from left, Vietnam's Pham Gia Khiem, South Korea's Kim Sung-hwan, Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto, Indonesia's Marty Natalegawa, and China's Yang Jiechi, hold hands during a group photo at the opening session of ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday. (AP/Dita Alangkara) Associated Press, Nusa Dua | Thu, 07/21/2011 2:19 PM Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations are calling for a speedy resumption of talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia had been negotiating since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle the program in exchange for aid and other concessions. The North pulled out of the talks about two years ago after being censured for launching a long-range rocket. It has indicated a willingness in recent months to return to the table. The 10-member Association of Southeast As...
Post a Comment
Read more