Teachers have over the years constituted the bulk of manpower participating in national events such as referendum, elections and the national census exercise. The simple logic being that teachers are of average literacy given that most of them have at least a diploma in education.  Teachers by the nature of their jobs can easily grasp new concepts hence it is easier to train them. Many of them have in fact participated in these national events over the years so training them is just a formality. The nation and the teachers themselves should have been taken aback to        learn that their own Minister, Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart was against their participation in the forthcoming referendum scheduled for 16 March.  Minister Coltart argued that the involvement of teachers in the referendum will disrupt the learning process. He said teachers should therefore not be used as polling agents to avoid disrupting the learning process. Minister Coltart said teachers will be required to undergo training and this meant lost learning time for the children. He said in the event of  the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) insisting on involving the teachers, it will be better to release untrained teachers.

We do not understand the reasoning behind releasing temporary teachers because their pupils will be equally affected by lost learning time. Pupils being taught by temporary teachers are already disadvantaged given the fact that their teachers have limited skills so these are the pupils whose learning should not be disrupted.

The teachers' unions have accused Mr Coltart of deliberately seeking to deny them the extra dollar by barring them from participating in national events such as the referendum. The unions argue that over the years teachers have made up for lost time. They said the ministry should leave it up to individual teachers to decide whether or not to participate in national events such as the referendum. We do appreciate that learning time is lost when teachers participate in national events such as referendum or elections but as the teachers unions have said, teachers have always made up for the lost time and the same should continue to happen.

Minister Coltart by barring teachers from participating in national events is not just denying teachers extra income but is attempting to disrupt the holding of these national events given the fact that the bulk of the manpower for these events has over the years been drawn from the education sector. Minister Coltart, we want to believe, is genuinely concerned about the disruption of the learning process and not just politicking or seeking unnecessary attention through uninformed utterances. What the Minister should do if he is genuinely concerned about the disruption of the learning process, is to ensure school authorities come up with measures to make  up for the lost time as opposed to demoralising teachers by denying them extra income.

The morale of teachers like the  rest of civil servants is at its lowest ebb due to poor salaries and Minister Coltart is not helping the situation by denying them opportunities to earn extra income. It is a fact that many teachers have remained at government schools because of  the incentives paid by parents. Participating in national events like the referendum or elections should therefore remain an incentive for teachers.

Minister Coltart has over the years defended the payment of incentives to teachers because he appreciates that their salaries are low. The fact  that Minister Coltart has not communicated his ministry's position to ZEC means his were just proposals which should be rejected for want                 of reason.