HON. TOGAREPI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Now that we have heard a long time of negotiations with teachers to give them a better income which I know is going to achieve results at some point, is it not going to be better at this stage that we employ some unemployed qualified teachers who are keen to go and help our kids?
HON. MATHEMA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I thank the Hon. Member for the question and indeed within the last week, we have employed 5300 new teachers and we will continue employing teachers so that every person who is trained as a teacher anywhere in Zimbabwe gets a job. After all, the Covid-19 environment demands that indeed we employ more teachers because of social distancing. In addition to that, we still need at least 3000 more schools in Zimbabwe. So every teacher who is not employed will be employed in our schools.
*HON. MANGORA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. You are saying you have employed new teachers but has anyone made follow up to see if teaching is going on. I am speaking as a parent and I know in schools there is the headmaster, deputy headmaster and receptionist. As Government, what measures do you have in place to check whether your newly employed teachers are doing their work? I thank you.
HON. MATHEMA: I thank the Hon. Member for the question. All schools have school heads, senior teachers and those teachers who have not gone on strike. Like I said earlier on, we are employing more teachers. So, as far as the Ministry is concerned, we do the best that we can to make sure that those children who are in school are taught. For the ears of this august House, the schools that we have – we are talking of all schools in this country. Not just public or Government schools, councils schools, but we are also talking of private, trust and mission schools and boarding schools. As far as I am concerned, those are all my schools as they are part of the education system in this country. There is no boarding school today which is not open, not a single is closed. So we have to look at the whole issue from that angle as well. Schools are open, some schools in fact do not have the difficulties that Hon. Members are citing here. Thank you very much.
THE HON. SPEAKER: We have had three supplementary questions already. It is very clear that the concerns of the Hon. Members impinge upon two ministries. Is the Hon. Minister of Public Service here? I think it will be very unfair to persist with Hon. Mathema because he is not the employer. Can we hear how far the Hon. Minister of Public Service has gone with the negotiations to ensure that the teachers go back to school?
THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE (HON. PROF. MAVIMA): Thank you Hon. Speaker. With regards to progress in the negotiations, the APEX Council which is the board that represents all civil servants unions and the government team have met twice so far. The Government offer was two-fold. There was a 40% increase in the salaries and also an extension of the US$75 COVID-19 allowance to the end of December this year. There have been two sessions and in both cases, the APEX Council did not accept the Government offer. So the Government team went back to consult with the principals. That consultation is still taking place. We are hoping that there will be another round of negotiations next week. What we have said in a rather informal meeting that we had with teachers unions – it was the Hon. Minister of Primary and Secondary Education and I. It was not a negotiating meeting but more to understand fundamentally what the teachers issues are. So, we have that understanding and the Government team is going to be appropriately instructed in the next round of negotiations. We made an appeal to the teachers that considering that there has been an extension of the COVID-19 allowance and there is a 40% increase, they should give negotiations a chance whilst they are attending to their duties. Hon. Speaker that is where the progress is. Government has already given 40% plus an extension of the COVID allowance to December. We see a more substantial change in the package for teachers and for the civil servants, coming under the new budget that is already being considered. That is where we are Hon. Speaker. I thank you.
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