Kabwe teachers up in arms with Education Authorities over hardship allowances

Concerned teachers in Kabwe have expressed their concern at the unfair manner the rural hardship allowances are being processed by Education authorities in the area.

The aggrieved teachers told ZANIS in an interview today, that it is unfair and discriminatory for some of their colleagues to continue receiving rural hardship allowance while others were not all serving in the same area.

They said it was sad that government would allow some teachers continue the allowance despite teaching in Kabwe, which is in a peri urban area.

“We are surprised that some of our colleagues in schools within Kabwe are still getting rural hardship allowance and yet Kabwe is a town where you find all the services such as banks, post office, hospitals including many clinics. But some of us are not getting, what is happening,’ wondered one teacher.

But when contacted, Kabwe District Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) chairperson, Shatemba Maala urged teachers not to worry saying the matter was receiving serious attention from government.

Mr. Maala explained that the office of the district education board secretary (DEBS) had already submitted the required information to the ministry of education to correct the situation.

He described the situation as an anomaly, which the union was aware of and was working with the office of the DEBS to ensure it was corrected as soon as possible.

The ZNUT official noted that the irregularity was there because the end users were not allowed to submit such required information about who should get the allowance and not but this was only allowed to be submitted by super end users who did not know what was happening on the ground.

‘It is true that teachers in some of the schools here in Kabwe are still benefitting from the rural allowance and this has dragged because our people at district were not allowed to submit the required information, because these are the people who know us but it was done by people in Lusaka,’ he said.

Mr. Shatemba appealed to teachers to be patient about the matter saying he was hopeful that pay slips for this month-end, would distinguish who should get and who should not get rural allowance.

ZANIS