MWENENZI – A salary barely adequate to pay for basics such as power or water bills would be a good enough reason to dig up the forgotten CV, quit the unrewarding toil and look for the proverbial greener pastures elsewhere.

But not for 30-year-old Tichaona Chibaya, a schoolteacher in Mwenenzi district in Zimbabwe’s southern hinterland, who says he can hardly feed his family with his measly salary but he does not see himself abandoning something he so much loves to do – teaching!

"I am working for the love of the job. As teachers in government schools, we are living from hand to mouth, so to speak," said Chibaya.

“With my salary I can’t pay electricity and water bills, I can’t pay school fees for my younger brother and don't even dream of buying assets like a house or a car.”

Teachers in Zimbabwe's public schools earn an average US$236 monthly wage as the power-sharing government formed a year ago struggles to revive an economy battered by years of hyperinflation, lure back investors and pay its workers.

Before the economic crisis teachers were a relatively well-to-do lot, able to afford comfortable living standards for their children and to buy a decent home or car for the family.

Shrinking salaries

Not for Chibaya and his colleagues here in Mwenenzi who – as has been the case with every public worker – have seen salaries shrink and working conditions deteriorate with the government out of cash to pay a living wage after a decade of political strife, hunger and acute recession.

In addition to dwindling salaries teachers also bore the brunt of political violence that has characterised every major election in the past decade, with militant supporters of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party targeting teachers for assault and torture as punishment for backing the then opposition MDC parties.

The birth in February last year of a new compromise government of the three main political parties eased political tensions and economic hardships in the country, while the new administration quickly called on teachers and other civil servants to return to work on promises of improved salaries and working conditions. Teachers obliged.

But a year on teachers feel short-changed. Some like Chibaya remain on the job driven by what seems an indefatigable love for the profession.

But thousands more have joined other civil servants on a strike that began four weeks ago to press the government for more pay.

Chaos of 2008

The job action has not been as successful as previous strikes by government workers but is chilling reminder of the chaos of 2008 when there was little learning at nearly all public schools as teachers were either on strike or simply stayed home because they did not have money for bus fare to go to work.

"When the government of national unity came, we all rejoiced thinking it was a political solution to our social and economic problems," Tendai Chikowore, leader of the Zimbabwe Teachers' Union recently told a rally in the capital where civil servants unions resolved to go on an open-ended strike demanding $630 for the lowest paid worker.

"The best language that is understood by the government is the language of industrial action," Takavafira Zhou, president of the Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said at a media conference.

The unity government of Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai concedes that teachers and other civil servants are underpaid. But the administration that has failed to win financial backing from rich Western nations says it is already using up to 60 percent of collected revenue on wages and cannot afford any significant pay increase for its workers.

Wrong priorities

But teachers, who make more than two-thirds of the estimated 230 000 government workers, say part of the problem is that the administration has got its priorities wrong – always putting its workers at the bottom of the pile even though they are the government’s most important resource.

For example, teachers cite Education Minister David Coltart’s blue print to revive the education sector released this earlier this year.

The document addressed to top officials in the education ministry said the top priorities were “the restoration of basic education and the provision of academies/centres of excellence to give an opportunity for gifted young people to rise, whatever their background.”

The government would also improve the provision of basic learning materials such as textbooks, exercise books, pens, pencils, chalk and rehabilitating desks and other basic classroom furniture, according to the document.

But the blue-print is virtually silent about the welfare of teachers!

“The restoration of basic education begins with the teacher, the minister cannot expect teachers to perform when they are not happy,” said Sifiso Ndlovu, the chief executive of the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) that is the largest union for teachers in the country.

Ensure teacher is happy

A PTUZ committee member Elizabeth Bere said the only way to ensuring that Coltart’s objectives for the education sector were met was to ensure the teacher is happy. She said: “The secret is making the teacher happy. Teachers are easy to work with if they are well-paid.”

Coltart, who despite criticism of his blue-print by teachers has, since becoming minister, undoubtedly done the most to revive public schools, was not immediately available for comment on the matter.

The Education Minister has in the past pleaded with teachers to be patient with the government as it scrounges for cash to improve salaries. But while the unity administration might have managed to stabilise the economy to ensure availability of basic commodities in shops – patience is one commodity fast running out of stock. Ask the teachers! – ZimOnline