Our daughter Sihle always complains that most of her teachers don’t work during normal hours but encourage the whole class to remain behind for extra lessons at a fee which they pocket for themselves. The culture of “extra lessons” has become the order of the day in Zimbabwe as teachers see it as  a quick way to make easy money. The trend has become a mixture of entrepreneurship and exploitation, with many parents failing to cope and some children become undisciplined.

The education ministry and teachers unions place the blame this mercenary attitude of the teachers squarely on the parents. They always discourage parents from paying teachers who abandon their normal duties in order to unnecessarily create a need for extra lessons from which they make more money than their meager salaries of 150 USD per month. With extra lessons they charge about 10USD per subject per child and end up taking home more than double their normal salaries.

Lag behind

“The sad thing is that not every parent can afford to pay for extra lessons since they already struggle to raise the normal school fees. Teachers do more during the extra lessons to attract more children who in turn put pressure on their parents in order not to lag behind” complains Mrs Georgina Moyo a mother of four who are going to school.

While many teachers have joined the bandwagon of making quick money through extra lessons, some have vowed not to be involved in what they describe as gross malpractice since they feel that it is against their calling.

Complaining against her fellow teachers, Mrs Maria Ndoro said, “It is not right to be involved in unnecessary extra lessons because even way back during our school days, all of us would pass with flying colors through normal learning and individual study. Parents nowadays feel guilty when their children don’t do well, thinking that they could have done better had their kids been enrolled for extra lessons. In our staff room discussions I am always in the minority when I speak against this exploitative practice”

Even chruches

The fever of extra lessons has also gripped the churches that have now created space at their premises in order to raise funds from the newly discovered opportunity in the largely deteriorated education sector. The service is extensively advertised among church-goers on Sundays and during the week many churches are beginning to look like ordinary schools.

Most extra lessons outside the schools are done by non-qualified teachers, mainly school leavers or university students whose campuses are always closed due to strikes or a general exodus of qualified lecturers for greener pastures outside Zimbabwe.

Frustrations

Rural-based teachers are frustrated because they cannot easily mobilize pupils for extra lessons since parents do not have the money to pay for them. As a result, schools in urban areas end up producing far better examination results. The poor rural teacher is always enviously seeking for every opportunity to get a  transfer to a school in the city where opportunities to make extra money are in abundance.

Not to be outclassed, we have also registered Sihle to do extra lessons at her school. We have also hired Mathematics and Science teachers to give her individual coaching since she does not seem to learn these subjects in classes during normal hours.

Click on the icon below to listen to Sifiso Ndlovu, from the Zimbabwe's Teachers Association, on poor remuneration leading to teachers taking up extra lessons: