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Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…
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By Elvis Dumba
Harare – Teachers have said they are not going back to work until their grievances are dealt with by their employer and insisted that threats of disciplinary action against them won’t work as that will not address their plight.
The government on Tuesday directed all provincial education directors, district schools inspectors, and school heads to take disciplinary actions on teachers who are not reporting for duty.
A letter signed by Mrs. Thabela, Secretary for Primary and Secondary Education instructed urgent disciplinary actions on teachers. A part of the letter reads “…take urgent disciplinary action against their members who obstructed the opening of schools…and when necessary to suspend such members,” it read in part.
The letter also instructed Provincial Education Directors to provide daily updates on the progress on disciplinary cases.
Teachers have vowed to continue with the industrial action and said they are not on strike but are incapacitated.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe President Takavafira Zhou said there is no law that punishes someone who is incapacitated
“We need to make this clear. Teachers are not on an industrial action but they are unable to work since they are incapacitated. It’s not a crime to be absent from school. It only becomes a chargeable offence when you are absent from school without any valid reason. Right now, teachers cannot travel to their respective schools as they are incapacitated.
“The government is reducing teachers to beggars by refusing to carry out its constitutional and employer obligations in ensuring that teachers are capacitated to be able to carry out their duties. Teachers are only going back to work when their needs are met,” Zhou said.
Schools around the country opened on Monday after a prolonged closure due to Covid-19. Learners were turned back home with some schools only being manned by the school head.