Teachers have said Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube must allocate 20% of the 2023 national budget to the education sector in line with the Dakar Framework for Action.
In their 2023 pre-budget position paper to Parliament, teachers said the 13% allocated to the education ministry in 2022 was inadequate to solve problems bedevilling the sector.
Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) president Obert Masaraure spoke to NewsDay:
Underfunding has led to multiple crises in the learning sector such as unaffordable education, lack of resources and paltry salaries for teachers resulting in incapacitation, dilapidation of infrastructure and 50% of youths dropping out of school.
The 2022 $55,2 billion allocated to education translated to US$674 million using 2021 rates. This was a big drop from US$1,162 billion allocated in 2019, US$905 million in 2018, and US$803 million in 2017.
Educators Union of Zimbabwe vice-president Tapedza Zhou said teachers’ salaries should be above a living wage.
His remarks were echoed by Zimbabwe Teachers Association secretary-general Goodwill Taderera who said the majority of teachers were living under the poverty datum line.
Teachers have since 2019 been calling upon the government to restore their pre-October 2018 salaries which were in the range of US$540.
The government says it has no capacity to pay all of them in United States Dollars.