By, Economic Analyst
In a country where the local currency is volatile and backed by nothing, the cost of living has continued to rise sharply, teacher salaries remain stagnant, a grim mismatch that is eroding livelihoods and undermining public education. Zimbabwean teachers have become some of the most economically endangered professionals.
According to the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ), the monthly cost of living for a low-income urban family of six now exceeds $702. Yet, a qualified teacher in Zimbabwe currently earns an average salary of $300, depending on location and grade level.
“Our payslip is a symbol of suffering, not income,” says Ruth Maphosa, an urban teacher from Bulawayo. “I borrow to get to school. I borrow to feed my family. I borrow to live.”
With inflation reaching double digits and the Zimbabwean currency consistently losing value, teachers are trapped in a vicious economic cycle. Their real earnings continue to diminish every month, making it almost impossible to afford basics like transport, food, housing, and school fees, ironically for their own children.
The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) is calling for the immediate adoption of a quarterly Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) indexed to inflation and market rates. The union insists that COLA is not a privilege, but a constitutional necessity to preserve the dignity of educators.
“How can we talk about quality education when the people delivering it can’t afford to buy bread?” asked ARTUZ spokesperson Thembakuye Maphephe. “We need COLA. Not next year. Not next term. Now!”
ARTUZ continues to demand for salaries to be pegged at US$1260/month. The union argues that anything less is tantamount to sanctioned economic violence against teachers.
When educators are forced to moonlight as vendors, taxi drivers, or farm workers just to survive, the classroom becomes an afterthought. Lessons are rushed. Attendance drops. Morale vanishes. The victims? Zimbabwe’s children the very future the government claims to protect.
Economists warn that without structural salary reform, Zimbabwe risks a full-blown brain drain in the education sector, and a generational learning crisis. Already the country has a shortage of over 50 000 teachers.
“The government must act urgently,” said, a Harare-based economist. “A demotivated and impoverished teacher is a national emergency.”
With schools re-opening in the second term and economic conditions worsening, ARTUZ has warned that industrial action may be inevitable if the government continues to ignore teacher grievances.
As inflation eats away at dignity and silence becomes complicity, the union’s call is clear:
Adjust salaries quarterly, or risk losing the backbone of public education.