Every morning, teachers across Zimbabwe walk into their classrooms carrying more than books and lesson plans. They carry the heavy burden of poverty wages, unpaid bills, and a government that continues to ignore their pleas for dignity. For years, teachers have asked for a living wage of USD $1,260 yet what they receive is a fraction of that, leaving them trapped below the poverty datum line.
Zimbabwe’s inflation story tells it all. Officially, annual inflation in US dollar terms was 13.4% in September 2025, slightly down from 14.2% in August. For ordinary consumers using hard currency, this looks like stability. But teachers, whose salaries are split between USD and ZiG, experience something far harsher.
The ZiG inflation rate stood at a staggering 82.7% in September, meaning that every month, the value of the ZiG component of their pay collapses further. Even worse, the government has failed to review teacher salaries in line with these inflation shocks, despite claiming quarterly adjustments. As a result, the little money teachers take home shrinks before it even reaches the market.
The result is devastating. “By the time I buy groceries and pay transport, there is nothing left,” says a Harare-based secondary school teacher. “I am a professional, yet I borrow from loan sharks just to send my children to school. It is humiliating.”
Teachers are taxed separately on their USD and ZiG components, a system designed for efficiency but that often leaves them with even less disposable income. Month after month, the profession that should nurture the nation is being starved of the basics.
The financial strain translates directly into mental and emotional distress. Many teachers report feeling undervalued, demoralised, and trapped. “We are told our work is noble, but noble work cannot pay rent or buy food,” said another teacher.
The effects are visible:
Burnout and Turnover: Teachers leave the profession at alarming rates. In 2023, 4,500 teachers resigned; in 2024, the number was projected to rise to 15,000. Those who remain are exhausted and overstretched.
Reduced Attractiveness: Teaching, once considered a respected career, no longer attracts the best minds. With salaries averaging USD $300/month, graduates with similar qualifications opt for other professions or migrate.
Financial Strain: To survive, many teachers moonlight as vendors, drivers, or tutors. Some sink into debt, forced to choose between feeding their families and paying school fees.
The cost of underpaying teachers is not borne by teachers alone. Learners suffer equally:
Teacher Shortages: Critical shortages, especially in STEM subjects, cripple schools. Some classes go for months without a qualified maths or science teacher.
Lower Quality of Education: Overcrowded classrooms — sometimes with a ratio of 1 teacher to 60 pupils — reduce learning quality.
Widening Gaps: Poorly resourced rural schools suffer the most, deepening inequalities between rich and poor, rural and urban learners.
Despite repeated calls, government continues to refuse a meaningful review of teacher salaries. Instead, cosmetic allowances and political empowerment funds for partisan groups like “Teachers for ED” are paraded as empowerment. Meanwhile, millions of children sit in overcrowded classrooms with teachers who can barely survive.
ARTUZ has been consistent: teachers deserve USD $1,260 — a salary benchmarked against the poverty datum line and the regional standard. Anything less is exploitation.
“The crisis is not about resources, it’s about priorities,” says ARTUZ Deputy Secretary General Munyaradzi Masiyiwa. “We watch government spend millions on luxury cars and political patronage, while telling teachers there is no money for salaries. This is not an economic crisis, it is a governance crisis.”
As long as government continues to ignore the plight of teachers, ARTUZ vows to keep mobilising, petitioning, and striking. The union insists that the right to education cannot be separated from the right of teachers to live dignified lives.