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Teachers Want Finance Minister To Allocate 20% Of 2023 Budget To Education Sector

Teachers Want Finance Minister To Allocate 20% Of 2023 Budget To Education Sector

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.

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