By Innocent Mujeri

Striking teachers risk permanently losing their jobs as the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education is considering numerous requests by retired teachers who want to re-join the service as they feel that they still have much to offer to the teaching field, an official from the Ministry has said.

The official, who preferred anonymity, revealed to Harare Post that retired teachers are re-applying to join the Ministry arguing that their colleagues in the judiciary are allowed to retire at 70 and that the same privilege should be extended to them.

The same source further revealed to this publication that the retired teachers are willing to accept the same salary which is being considered inadequate by the serving teachers.

It was also revealed that the Ministry is processing thousands of applications from unemployed trained teachers who want to join the Ministry. Government is believed to be considering offering teaching positions to the retired and unemployed teachers as a direct replacement for teachers who are contemplating downing tools.

According to the source, government is also in the process of reviving the Zimbabwe Integrated National Teachers Education Course (ZINTEC) and increase number of teachers to be trained through this programme.

Under the ZINTEC programme, students undertake two long periods of study in teacher training colleges at the beginning and end of the program, and shorter periods each year in between. When the students are not in college they are assigned to schools to teach. During this period they are helped with distance teaching materials and supervised by college lecturers.

The development came at a time teachers, through their representatives, Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA), Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) and Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) are threatening to down tools until government addresses the salary disputes.

However, there is discord among teachers as some are against the proposed strike opting for completion of salary negotiations between government and its workers.

Last week government offered almost a 100 percent salary increment to civil servants but the offer was shot down by Apex council, which wants civil servants’ salary to be indexed with the prevailing interbank rate.

This is not the first time for government to replace striking civil servants with other qualified personnel. Striking nurses were once forced to abandon their illegal industrial action in 2018 after government had moved swiftly to replace them with unemployed trained nurses who could equally do the job.