EDITORIAL COMMENT: Parents withdrawing children from school are abetting the few teachers’ strike

Teachers country-wide on Tuesday ignored a call to down tools but unfortunately some parents, especially in Bulawayo, are said to have withdrawn their children from school.

According to acting Bulawayo provincial education director Mrs Olicah Kaira, most teachers reported for work on Tuesday but some parents withdrew their children from schools while others told the children not to go to school.

“Teachers in Bulawayo went to work but I received reports from Milton Junior School and Coghlan Primary School that some parents withdrew their children from school saying teachers were on strike,” said Mrs Kaira.

She said she did not expect this from parents who should instead be very concerned when their children do not attend school.

Most teachers’ unions called off the strike following their meeting with the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education Professor Paul Mavima on Monday.

Minister Mavima outlined a battery of interventions including non-monetary incentives that President Mnangagwa has rolled out to lessen the burden on the worker in the face of painful austerity measures being implemented by Government to ensure long term economic recovery.

Most schools throughout the country recorded a 100 percent teacher turnout in both urban and rural areas.

It is unfortunate that some parents whose children lost a week of learning time last month following the violent protests instigated by the MDC-Alliance, decided to withdraw their children from schools instead of persuading teachers not to down tools in order to cover up for the lost time.

Responsible parents should be very worried when their children do not attend classes.

The parents should instead be working with Government to find ways of motivating teachers and what quickly comes to mind is the issue of teachers’ incentives.

School Development Committees in the Midlands province are already consulting school heads and parents on the possibility of re-introducing incentives to motivate teachers.

We want to, however, point out that the Government position is that teachers’ incentives are illegal since they are a burden on the parents.

Minister Mavima has said Government is yet to deliberate on the issue and what probably parents need to do is to engage Government.

We want to believe that after consulting the school heads and parents, SDCs in the Midlands will then engage Government on the way forward.

In an effort to continuously improve the welfare of civil servants who include teachers, Government is providing transport and has also come up with affordable housing schemes among other non-monetary incentives.

We have said it before that both civil servants and workers in the private sector should take into account the prevailing economic realities as they negotiate with their employers for review of salaries.

The employers can only pay salaries they can afford hence the importance of workers to consider the issue of affordability.