Government is set to recruit more teachers when it is already struggling to pay the already employed teachers.
The government is currently at loggerhead with teachers as the latter are demanding salary increment of US$520 or rtgs equivalent.
Most teachers did not show up at schools yesterday during the second phase of schools opening where grade six, form three and five students returned to school.
Already there is a crises, yet the government is recruiting more teachers without solving the issues at hand first.
Last month when schools opened for examination classes, government met with teachers unions in Harare in a bid to solve the strike issue but they failed to reach an agreement.
Government a few weeks ago also said striking teachers will be replaced and at the mean time, those striking will not get paid.
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Cain Mathema told the media that the government has already recruited 5000 teachers and more will be recruited soon.
“The Government has just recruited 5 000 teachers in a drive to employ the over 20 000 unemployed qualified teachers that we had by last November. I don’t have a breakdown of how many teachers were allocated to each province during the last recruitment but the process has been completed and we are working towards hiring more,” said Minister Mathema. He said.
Teachers have also been demanding Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) against the Covid -19 for them to return to work, will the government be able to provide these for the new recruited teachers when they are failing to provide for the teachers already employed?
