EDITORIAL COMMENT: Govt should address plight of student teachers Mr Richard Gundane
Richard Gundane

Richard Gundane

Government has already covered a lot of ground in implementing measures aimed at reducing employment costs in order to redirect revenue towards capital expenditure.

This follows realisation that the bulk of government revenue is going towards payment of salaries which is an unsustainable consumptive position.

Government announced that among the raft of measures it is taking is reducing employment numbers by 25 000. Government said its target is to reduce employment costs to around 60 percent by 2019 compared to the present 97 percent.

Measures that have been implemented since the beginning of the year are already yielding monthly savings of around $6,5 million. Government expects to realise an annual saving of about $118 million when it fully implements the identified measures. These measures have seen Government reducing student teachers’ allowance from $329 a month to $157.

The student teachers can only afford basics such as food and transport and the situation is dire for those students that pay monthly rentals while on teaching practice. What has worsened the plight of the student teachers is the deduction by colleges of amounts ranging from $90 to $110 as teaching practice fee.

The students are as a result left with between $20 and $50 monthly allowances which cannot meet even the basics already stated above.

Government should immediately direct colleges to stop deducting this teaching practice fee until such a time that students allowances are increased. Government should provide resources for the assessment of students and printing of study packs.

The training of teachers is manpower development and as such students should benefit from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund. The Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) president Mr Richard Gundane said Government was shortchanging student teachers.

He said the association spoke strongly against reducing student teachers’ allowances and there was therefore an urgent need for Government to revisit the area. Mr Gundane said Government had an obligation to train personnel and this includes teachers. It is Government’s responsibility to ensure that during training, students are paid sustainable allowances especially when students are on industrial attachment.

Mr Gundane said student teachers travel often to their respective colleges to submit projects and assignments and all this requires money.

We cannot agree more with Mr Gundane.

Colleges should be directed to stop forthwith deducting the teaching practice fee while Government revisits the issue of student teachers’ allowances which, in our view, should be at least $300 a month.

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