The Public Service Commission (PSC) said teachers who are refusing to return to work will be replaced without the option of re-engagement in future.
This comes after the PSC gave the teachers an ultimatum to report for duty by 22 February 2022 or face dismissal.
Speaking to NewsDay yesterday, PSC chairperson Jonathan Wutawunashe said teachers who are absent from work should have a valid and verifiable reason to do so. He said:
Those teachers who signal that they are no longer willing to work, naturally, have to be replaced as quickly as possible in the interests of schoolchildren.
A teacher, who is absent from work, needs to give a valid and verifiable reason for unavoidable absence, failing which the regulations provide procedures for disciplinary measures, which include dismissal.
Urgent recruitment, where there are no teachers, will be done in accordance with established recruitment procedures.
The PSC said it would replace the striking teachers with unemployed trained educators or college graduates.
Primary and Secondary Education spokesperson Taungana Ndoro on Tuesday said that the majority of teachers reported for duty fearing dismissal.
The majority of teachers and school heads boycotted classes when schools reopened for the 2022 first term on 7 February citing incapacitation.
The Government offered civil servants a 20% salary offer, with part of their Zimbabwe dollar salaries equivalent to US$100, paid in hard cash.
Teachers, who constitute the greater proportion of the civil service, insist the offer is not good enough and are pushing for the restoration of their pre-October 2018 US$540 salary.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) president Richard Gundane reiterated the union’s call for its members to report for work.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure said the unity among teachers has been broken by the Government’s use of deceit and threats.
Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) secretary-general Raymond Majongwe castigated some teachers’ unions for their “complicity in incapacitating teachers.”