GOVERNMENT has told school teachers that they have no excuse failing to turn up for work and asked the financially constrained workers to borrow money to go be able to report for duty.
This comes after teachers recently indicated that they have no money for bus fare to travel to their workplaces after a prolonged Covid-19 lockdown which kept schools shut for over four months.
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Some teachers say they have had to turn to loan sharks to borrow bus fare at exorbitant interest rates.
Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary Tumisang Thabela told journalists at Tuesday’s Post Cabinet media briefing, there is an almost 30 percent deficit in its workforce.
“From our daily check of attendance for the previous week, the number of teachers that were coming as compared to those that we were expecting was over 70 percent,”Thabela said.
“There are one or two provinces that are generally depressed so those who are supposed not to have enough money or whatever, we are hoping by end of this week they would have borrowed enough money to go back to work.”
Teachers have also argued that they are failing to send their own children to work as they earn as little as $20 000 (almost US$133 on the black market).
Teachers unions have called for industrial action due to government’s continued resistance to addressing their grievances.
They have vowed not to attend their duties until government reinstates their 2018 salaries that stood at US$550, a Covid-19 allowance and provision of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to ensure their safety against the virus.
Thabela told journalists she knew nothing of their grievances as that was not under her jurisdiction but that of Public Service Minister Paul Mavima.
Added Thabela: “The employment rests with the Public Service Ministry, we have been consulting them on when and how to open schools, we are their supervisors, we use them but in terms of engagement I would not be able to comment on that.”
On a related note, Thabela said examinations, expected to commence this term could spill over into 2022.
