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Nqobile Tshili Bulawayo Bureau

The welfare of teachers should be addressed if they are to effectively deliver on their mandate, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Ambassador Cain Mathema has said.

Ambassador Mathema made the remarks during the ministry’s 2020 strategic workshop here yesterday.

He said some teachers were living in squalid conditions and this needed to change.

“The ministry, I am informed, has 130 000 teachers. They are my soldiers and as far as l am concerned, these are my troops. I cannot accept a situation where my troops live in hovels, where 10 teachers share a house.

“Each teacher must live separately with the necessary privacy. We can’t have a situation where teachers can’t even have privacy.

“Before a new school is built, we must make sure that there is piped water and secondly at a new school, we build the school head’s house and after that we build teachers’ cottages, then classroom blocks,” said Ambassador Mathema.

He said without motivated teachers, the Government could falter on delivering a world class education system.

“It is so embarrassing to see teachers going to fetch water from Gwayi River with water carriers on their heads in the morning before they go to school and expect them to perform.

Ambassador Mathema said teachers should be assisted to build their own homes and buy properties through mortgage facilities and Public Private Partnerships (PPP).

He said several schools had been damaged by storms and talks were underway for devolution funds to be used to rehabilitate the infrastructure.

Ambassador Mathema said he would engage the Public Service Commission (PSC) to fill vacancies in the ministry as those in acting capacities could not effectively execute their duties.

“I will write to the chairman of the Public Service Commission so that we fill those posts,” he said.