BASIC Education Teachers Union of Zambia (BETUZ) spokesperson Kabika Kakunta says COVID-19 has brought its own shocks but that is not a justification for having poor teachers’ conditions of service.

In an interview, Kakunta said there was need to engage government in the next collective bargain to ensure that the conditions of service for teachers met the minimum basic needs basket.

“I think for us as Basic Education Teachers Union of Zambia, our role as a union is to ensure that the condition of service for our members meets the basic minimum standards. And currently we know that the economic situation is just stabilising now, but of course we still have a lot that we need to do if we are to meet the minimum bread basket as provided by JCTR. And I think that we need to see how we engage with the government in the next collective bargain to ensure that the condition of service for our members meets the minimum basic basket. Of course we know that COVID-19 also has brought its own shocks but that doesn’t give a justification as to whether we should keep the condition of service for workers below the minimum bread basket,” said Kakunta.

“So, our focus in the collective bargaining is to see, how do we push the conditions of service and other conditions of service for the public service workers to meet the minimum bread basket? That will at least alleviate the challenges they are going through. Like right now, we know the economy has its own shocks but with the way things are moving now, for us it gives us confidence that as we project towards the end of the year we may see a stable economy that can guarantee free collective bargaining. So that the conditions of service for our teacher members are improved. And we know that when conditions are improved, they help in improving the learner performance thereby providing quality education for this country.”