Work For Free To Show Your Patriotism
Almost 400 teachers in Zimbabwe are said to have volunteered to work for close to nothing in schools across the country as a way to prove their patriotism.
Mr Taungana Ndoro, the communications director at the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is on record saying that having teachers offering free services in schools was a form of patriotism that would help in nation-building. This move comes at a time when the teachers' unions have declared incapacitation and are demanding better working conditions and remuneration above the poverty datum line, PDL. The standoff with their employer has been running for years now.
The teachers' unions rubbished the work-for-free-to-prove-your-patriotism move. Describing the move as madness of the worst kind, Progress Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president, Dr Takavafira Zhou said,
“It is madness of the worst kind, if not a ludicrous hallucination. It’s peddled by the government in an attempt to justify the underpayment of teachers on the pretext that there are qualified teachers ready to render services freely”.
He said teachers were not slaves and ought to earn a living wage.
“We have a deficit of more than 50 000 teachers in schools and government must urgently fill the deficit as a matter of urgency. Government must come up with contingent measures to remunerate teachers well rather than trying to justify the unjustifiable.”
Educators Union of Zimbabwe (EUZ) secretary-general Tapedza Zhou accused the Primary and Secondary Education ministry of politicising the sector.
“Ministry officials have been drinking too much from the glass of politicians to the extent of using partisan and corrupted vocabulary, where they interchangeably use ‘patriotism’ and ‘impoverishment’ as if they mean the same. What patriotism comes from an impoverished teacher? Why are responsible ministry officials, most of whom are not impoverished, not leading by example in patriotism by paying the volunteering teachers, instead of, for example, splashing money on foreign musicians during their own birthday parties?”
Zimbabwe Teachers Association secretary-general Goodwell Taderera said the move was an (unfair) labour practice.
“Where in the world have you seen people working for free? How can people be donating their labour for nothing, which is a serious and gross [unfair] labour practice? It can only be a gimmick from authorities and the powers that be in order to pacify teachers and they do not fight for their rights. That gives us the resolve to keep fighting even harder.”
