ZIMSTATS Excludes Striking Teachers From Conducting Census

The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTATS) has announced that it will recruit teachers to conduct the 2022 National household and population census but those who embarked on industrial action in February won’t be considered.

The process is scheduled to run from April 7 to April 30 this year. In a memorandum to all provincial education directors Wednesday, ZIMSTATS said:

The provincial education directors are directed to facilitate the smooth release of staff to take part in the national census and to take note of selection criteria for selecting teachers that take part in the national census…

Those teachers that took part in the industrial action witnessed in the first two weeks of the term shall be ineligible for selection of census duties

ZIMSTATS said the government directed that only those teachers that had been consistently attending classes since the opening of schools in February 2022 should be considered for the census duties.

When schools opened on February 7 for the 2022 first term, teachers declared incapacitation, demanding that they be paid the pre-October 2018 salary of US$540.

This resulted in more than 50 school heads and 32 teachers being suspended from duty.

On Tuesday during the post-Cabinet media briefing, Information and Publicity minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the number of teachers reporting for duty had risen to 94‚3%.

More: NewsDayZimbabwe