The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) notes with serious concern recent remarks by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Torerai Moyo, in which he announced plans to visit all provinces to inspect teachers and their schemes of work, warning that those “found wanting” will be dealt with severely.
While ARTUZ fully supports accountability and quality education, we strongly reject threats, intimidation, and public grandstanding as tools for improving the education system. The Minister’s remarks amount to an overreach of authority and risk worsening an already fragile education sector.
The Zimbabwean Constitution is clear on the principles that govern public administration.
* *Section 194(1)(a)* requires a public service that is professional, efficient, and impartial. Governing by threats undermines professionalism.
* *Section 195(1)(a) and (d)* emphasises respect for human dignity, fairness, and transparency in labour practices.
* *Section 65(1)* guarantees fair labour standards. Publicly threatening teachers with “severe action” without due process violates this principle.
Teachers are professionals. They are not suspects to be hunted, humiliated, or intimidated for political optics.
ARTUZ is deeply concerned that the Minister’s approach sidelines school heads and inspectors, whose core responsibility is to supervise teaching and learning.
Headmasters and heads of department are trained education managers. If the Minister personally supervises schemes of work, it raises a fundamental question:
*What then is the role of school heads?*
This approach weakens institutional authority, creates fear within schools, and replaces professional supervision with political theatre.
Instead of threatening teachers, ARTUZ urges the Minister to focus on the real emergencies crippling education:
1. *School Dropouts*
Thousands of learners are leaving school due to poverty, early marriages, abuse, and unaffordable fees. Inspecting schemes of work will not bring these children back into classrooms.
2. *BEAM and Government Failure to Pay Schools*
The Basic Education Assistance Module has collapsed. Schools are owed huge sums, forcing them to send learners home, withhold results, or deny access to learning. This is a government failure, not a teacher failure.
3. *Poor Teacher Remuneration*
Teachers earn below the Poverty Datum Line. Hungry, stressed, and overworked educators cannot perform miracles. No inspection can substitute fair pay.
4. *The Wider Education Crisis*
Overcrowded classrooms, shortages of textbooks, lack of laboratories, and chronic understaffing remain unresolved.
5. *School Infrastructure Decay*
Many schools have cracked walls, broken furniture, unsafe toilets, and no staff accommodation. Inspecting schemes of work in collapsing classrooms is both insulting and dishonest.
If implemented, this approach will:
* Create fear and anxiety among teachers.
* Undermine headmasters and school management.
* Encourage cosmetic compliance instead of real teaching improvement.
* Shift focus away from learners’ welfare to survival tactics.
* Damage morale in a profession already on its knees.
In countries with strong education systems, Ministers of Education do not police teachers’ lesson plans. They:
* Invest in continuous professional development.
* Ensure adequate funding for schools.
* Work through professional inspectorates and school leadership.
* Support teachers with resources, mentoring, and fair pay.
Preparedness is built through *support, not **surveillance*.
ARTUZ is clear:
A minister walking into schools with threats does not prepare learners, does not improve outcomes, and does not fix structural problems. It only creates headlines.
True leadership confronts hard truths, including government neglect, underfunding, and policy failure.
ARTUZ calls on the Minister to:
* Withdraw threatening language immediately.
* Respect school leadership structures.
* Engage teachers and unions in good faith.
* Address funding, remuneration, and infrastructure as priorities.
* Focus on learner retention and welfare, not intimidation.
Teachers are ready to be accountable. What they are not ready for is being blamed for a crisis they did not create.
In conclusion ARTUZ invites and urges all teachers to picket at their schools from opening to early February demanding a living wage ($1260).
Picketing at schools will lead to a full blown strike if teachers’ salaries are not reviewed by January.
Issued by:
*ARTUZ Information Department*
📧 ruraltrsunion@gmail.com
📞 +263777473135/776129336/775643192
Follow us: @ARTUZ_teachers
