Today, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) joins the world in marking the International Day to Protect Education from Attack.
Globally, education remains under siege. Between 2022 and 2023, there were over 6,000 attacks on schools worldwide, a shocking 44% increase. Learners and teachers continue to face violence, abduction, and even death. ARTUZ extends its solidarity to our brothers and sisters in DRC, Sudan, Nigeria, and Somalia, where schools have become frontline targets of armed conflict.
We echo the global call for the silencing of guns. But while wars and violence persist, it remains paramount that education continues uninterrupted. Every child, regardless of circumstance, must have the right to learn in safety.
Though Zimbabwe is not at war, our schools are far from safe. Attacks on education take many forms:
Political violence disrupting learning, with teachers and learners caught in the crossfire.
Teachers fleeing persecution, as witnessed recently in Bikita, where educators were forced out by mobilised communities.
Learners dragged to political gatherings, used to sing and dance for politicians instead of learning in class.
School premises and property abused, turned into venues and tools for private political gain.
Starvation wages and chronic underfunding, stripping teachers of dignity and leaving learners in crumbling classrooms.
These injustices are deliberate acts of neglect by the ruling elite. Instead of protecting schools, the state has weaponised them — silencing teachers, politicising learners, and undermining the very values our liberation heroes fought for.
On this day, ARTUZ calls on the Government of Zimbabwe to:
Fully honour the constitutional mandate of free, compulsory, quality education for all.
Pay teachers a living wage of USD $1,260 to protect the profession from collapse.
Guarantee safe schools by ending political interference in education.
Stop the abuse of school spaces for political gain.
Respect teachers’ rights to organise, bargain, and work without fear of persecution.
ARTUZ continues with its #SafeSchools Campaign, demanding that all politicians stay away from the school ecosystem. Schools must remain spaces of learning, not politics.
An attack on education is an attack on our children’s future. We will not relent until every learner studies in safety and every teacher works with dignity.