Terrence Mawawa, Masvingo
A Zanu PF councillor and a group of disgruntled parents last week forced staff members at Chekai Secondary School in Masvingo District to suspend lessons over poor results.

Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) has strongly condemned the forced suspension of lessons.

Below is a statement written by PTUZ president Takavafira Zhou:

Chekai Secondary School in Masvingo District was closed by parents on 2 March 2018 around 12 noon. Parents who had been invited to an Annual General Meeting turned against the school head and teachers for producing poor results.

The parents under the influence of a local Zanu PF councillor ordered all pupils to go home.They then wrote a petition to the district after which they commandeered the school head to accompany them to the district to hand over the petition calling for his dismissal together with other teachers.

As PTUZ we condemn such lawlessness and blame game of teachers for doing so much with too little.

Teachers have always pointed to bloated classrooms, shortage of resources and limited learning time due to Dokora’s myriads of games yet no one listens to them.

Sadly, when students fail, parents and other officials are quick to blame teachers yet there are so many individuals who are destroying the education system in Zimbabwe – including rogue parents.

PTUZ would like to remind parents that creating a harmonious relationship with teachers will also help in the effective learning of students rather than being antagonistic and acidic to teachers.

Mnangagwa’s government has also done virtually nothing to improve the plight of teachers who are lowly paid and discriminated as professionals -as they are not enjoying vacation leave as other civil servants while student teachers’ peanuts allowances are likely to be removed.

We certainly should not be blamed for any eventuality should teachers go on industrial action any time as government has turned a deaf ear to the plight of teachers.