SCHOOL heads have broken with tradition and joined teachers in demanding better salaries, declaring that they will not report for duty when schools open next term.
Ordinarily, school heads do not participate in any job action, often acting as enforcers of government policy.
Last week, they vowed to stand in solidarity with their subordinates, as they also feel the punch of the economic hardships.
This followed a meeting held on Thursday under the banner of Federation of Educators Union of Zimbabwe (FEUZ) where it was resolved that schools will remain shut when they are due to open on September 10 if the government ignores their demands.
The Zimbabwe National Union of School Heads and leaders of several teachers unions, including Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) and the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) attended the meeting.
“The Federation of Educators' Unions of Zimbabwe (FEUZ), comprising the following unions in the education sector, Zimta, PTUZ, TUZ, ZRTU, ZDTU, ZINUSH, and ZINEU held a meeting in Harare, today, August 14, 2025 and agreed on the following resolution,” a FEUZ statement released after the meeting read.
“It demands an urgent salary review to enable its members to report for duty when schools open for the 2025 third term on September 9, 2025, failure of which will make it impossible for teachers to report for duty.”
Asked whether there were prospects of talks between government and civil servants before schools reopen, Public Service ministry secretary, Simon Masanga, said he was busy.
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“I am at a funeral,” Masanga said.
The government has had several meetings with its workers under the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC), but the gatherings have ended in deadlock as the government refuses to give in to the demands of its workers
The educators have been pushing the government for a US$540 monthly salary, which they earned before October 2018, while other unions are demanding up to US$840.
Currently, teachers earn an average of US$364 per month.
Teachers have, over the years, been at loggerheads with the government over low salaries.
Zimbabwe Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions secretary general David Datsunga expressed pessimism over the workers having an opportunity to meet the government before schools reopen.
“Right now, the issue of sitting down at the negotiation table has been an area of concern,” Dzatsunga said.
“I can’t say with certainty that we can have talks before schools reopen.
“We wrote to the NJNC requesting a meeting, but we have not received a response.
“We have been to the minister of Finance (MthuliNcube) to include the cost of adjustment on the mid-term fiscal policy but there is nothing like that.
“So we can’t be optimistic that there will be a meeting anytime soon.”
He added: “During the last meeting, the government officials asked for time to consult, but I guess they have been consulting forever.”
Early this year, a PTUZ delegation went to President Emmerson Mnangagwa's offices, seeking his intervention over salaries and various challenges bedevilling the education sector.
