Mozambique: Teachers boycott exams in 12 schools in overtime payment dispute – Watch

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Mozambique: Teachers boycott exams in 12 schools in overtime payment dispute – Watch

3:09 CAT | 03 Dec 2024

Photo: Notícias

Teachers from at least 12 schools in southern Mozambique brought their activities to a standstill and prevented secondary school final exams from taking place on Monday, demanding payment for overtime, said the National Teachers’ Association (Anapro).

“The decision to have the teacher not supervise the exams is not his, but the government’s, because in the meetings we’ve had we’ve had a clear message: if they didn’t pay the overtime in full there would be no exams,” the president of Anapro, Isac Marrengula, told Lusa.

The final exams for the 10th and 12th grades, due to end on 6 December, started today across the country, but in at least 12 schools confirmed by Anapro (11 in Maputo province, in southern Mozambique, and one in the country’s capital) this didn’t happen.

Among other things, the teachers’ demands include complaints about delays in the payment of overtime for two months and 18 days of 2022, the whole of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, as well as a “better framework” in the Single Salary Table (TSU).

“The teachers are already fed up and no longer believe in the government which had guaranteed that it would pay, especially the 2023 debt, but they were unanimous in saying that exams will only be held when the government pays off the debt,” said Isac Marrengula, who called for action from the executive to resolve the concerns of the professionals.

“The most curious thing is the silence of the Ministry of Education and Human Development, which has not called the associations to try to negotiate,” said Marrengula, calling for a “hand on the conscience” of the government for the good of education and the country.

In reaction, the deputy minister for Education and Human Development, Manuel Banzo, recognised the payment of overtime as ‘complex’, which involves checking the lists of hours owed by the executive, and reaffirmed the intention to pay from the 2022 debt.

“It’s a challenge that the government has, it’s making efforts to pay overtime, we can’t move forward with the deadlines because there are some elements that must be combined, but I guarantee that it will pay,” said Manuel Banzo, speaking to the media.

Anapro said on 26 November that the payment of overtime had begun the previous day, but that the freeze on school grades in Mozambique would prevail until at least the full payment of the 2023 debt.

At the time, Marrengula said that at a meeting held on 20 November, there was a commitment to pay the 2023 overtime by the end of that month.

On 31 January, the Minister of Education and Human Development acknowledged that the teachers’ demands for the payment of overtime are “legitimate”, assuring that the government will fulfil its obligations to the class.

On 17 April, the prime minister, Adriano Maleiane, said that the government had paid at least €3.3 million in overtime to teachers, warning against “unfounded claims for remuneration”.

READ: Mozambique: Government owes 51.6 million dollars to teachers

“In the education sector, a debt of 361.6 million meticais [ €5.3 million] has been validated, and 227.4 million meticais [€3.3 million] in overtime allowances have already been paid,” said Maleiane, speaking at the Parliament during the executive’s response session to questions from MPs.