THE Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) is in the process of organising a two-week trip to China for its members as a way of “economically empowering the underpaid teachers”. LINDA CHINOBVA OWN CORRESPONDENT
Zimta public relations officer Daisy Zambuko said the trip would be sometime in May.
“The trip is an economic empowerment programme that was introduced by the organisation last year after realising that the government was failing to increase salaries of teachers,” she said.
“The main objective of the upcoming trip is to provide grounds for the teachers to mix and mingle with potential business partners in China and also to acquire business ideas that can help them come up with successful business projects so as to generate more funds, seeing as they are very much underpaid.
“The teachers will not sit on their hands and wait for the government to finally recognise them, but will embark on different projects that will empower them financially,” Zambuko said.
She said 58 members had registered adding that there was no fixed number for the trip as Zimta wanted a lot of its members to take part for maximum exposure.
“There is no fixed figure for the trip because our main aim is to get a large number if not all the teachers taking part in the trip.
“Financially, the teachers are parting with different amounts of money that will sustain them in China,” she said.
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However, a source told Southern Eye that teachers were advised by Zimta officials to part with about $1 200 for the trip.
“In one of the Zimta meetings to discuss the trip, we were told to part with not less than $1 200 towards the trip,” the source said.
Zambuko said this was not the first trip that the members had embarked on as a group of 30 Zimta members already had spent two weeks in China in December last year.
