Teachers to benefit from school fess payment scheme

Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT is compiling data on the number of teachers who are supposed to benefit from the school fees payment scheme paving way for the release of funding, a senior official has said.

The move to provide school fees allowances for teachers’ children was announced in February this year as part of a raft of measures to improve the welfare of educators.

The scheme covers fees payment for up to three children as part of non-monetary incentives for teachers with each child entitled to $20 000.

Speaking during question time in Parliament on Wednesday, Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Lovemore Matuke said once the data collation process was finished, the allowances will be backdated.

“There is some work to be done before payment is made. We are now in the process of capturing data on the number of teachers where the Government is supposed to be paying the school fees,” he said.

“So, we are still in the process of capturing the names. The other thing is, as soon as we finish that process, they are going to be paid, backdating from the date, which the announcement was made,” said Dep Minister Matuke.

Binga North House legislator Mr Prince Sibanda, further asked why the Government was paying school fees allowances for teachers instead of improving their salary so that they could be able to pay fees on their own.

In response Dep Minister Matuke said the initiative did not come from the Government but from teachers’ unions themselves.

“It was never an initiative from the ministry but it was negotiated by the unions. The teachers’ unions negotiated for that benefit, so the Government was responding to the request by the unions to ask the ministry to pay fees for their children,” he said.

Contacted for comment, Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) chief executive officer, Dr Sifiso Ndlovu, said they were following up on all the promises made by Government, including school fees payment and accommodation.

“As Zimta, we are following up on all those promises made by the Government during the collective bargaining process,” he said.

“The first one is the school fees payment and the second is on the issue of houses for teachers. There is money for house construction and the Government is telling us that at the moment they are still working on logistics, which we believe it’s the collection of names but what we know is that a majority of teachers have forwarded their names and we surely can’t wait for those who are yet to.”

Dr Ndlovu said there was need to have an inter-ministerial co-ordinating committee that will involve the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Ministry as well as the employer, the PSC, who should be tasked with coming up with modalities on meeting the outstanding issues.

“The PSC secretary recently promised to engage the Finance ministry to give us a tangible position this week. We are still waiting,” said Dr Ndlovu.