ANALYSIS BY JEFF SAMPA
ANY genuine desire to improve teaching and learning must necessarily be concerned with the environment in which teaching occurs.
One of the primary functions of teacher unions is to act as the vehicles by which teachers’ concerns about the conditions of teaching and learning reach the attention of policy-makers.
In a context where teachers by definition have little formal authority to participate in policy discussions, and where educational decision-makers have limited knowledge about dynamics of educational practice, teacher unions’ role is critical.
In addition to playing the bridging role, teacher unions are sites where new policy ideas are developed. They can be settings for educational experimentation and innovation, research, teacher leadership, and teacher learning, thus increasing the capacity of educational systems more broadly.
Yet in our country, government officials develop educational legislation, teacher unions are absent from the table. Often established after, and even in reaction to, formal educational systems, teachers’ organisations are not always viewed as legitimate decision markers, and they often are perceived as working in opposition to official educational priorities.
During the Leonard Hikaumba era, unions were understood as critically important to educational quality and had broadly positive working relationships with Government and local education employers.
It’s noted that virtually all top performing countries on international educational measures have strong unions – that is, unions that play an active role in educational decision-making and participate in setting the educational reform agenda.
In these jurisdictions, union influence is more or less taken for granted and unions are recognised for providing unique resources.
Through the reports of their teacher members, unions provide important system feedback on the actual conditions of teaching and learning “on the ground.”
In some context, teacher unions provide necessary infrastructure for educational systems where such capacity does not. And some unions are capable of fostering innovation, bringing needed new educational practices into being.
Teacher union-government collaborative relations are of significant value to attempts to advance educational quality.
Teacher unions are supposed to be a source of innovation and ideas, and their efforts to advance teacher capacity are directly relevant to the conditions of teaching and learning. Teacher unions themselves, policy-makers and education international all must play their part in establishing, maintaining and promoting union-government relationships.
Zambia has had a checkered history of teacher union-government relations, with alternating periods of labour strife and relative harmony.
There has also been unique proliferation of these teacher unions whose missions and visions still remain un-understood by their clientele. This development has seen many if not all teachers lose cognisance of these supposed middlemen in wage consumption.
As if that is not enough, the teacher unions have purely failed to play their role as expected by the teachers. Because they have fixed their eyes not on the plight of the teacher but on the little that the teacher earns, they no longer know how to bargain or negotiate for the teacher’s better conditions of service.
Many are the times they have only appeared before Government just to append signatures to approve what Government has thought of giving to its people and they turn to the teacher and say it is a collective agreement.
Our unions must understand that “God sees evil but bides his time.” They easily forget that this teacher they have failed to represent well is their employer.
Government spoke of 12 percent increment across the board all they did as per tradition was to say nothing but append a number of signatures and called it a collective agreement. Do you really understand what the difference is between 12 percent for someone in salary scales K, L, M and those you survive on in salary scales I going below?
These teacher unions to be honest have lost favour in the sight of the teacher. The best they can do is to merge and carryout some introspection or better still try to rebrand as some organisations are doing because teachers don’t see any of the aforementioned qualities in the unions.
My appeal to the listening government of the new dawn is to strongly intervene by making sure that we have only one teacher union that speaks the mind of an ordinary teacher and also ensure that all the monies received by these unions from teacher contributions are channelled to the national treasury.
I suggest so because this money will still be able to get back to the teacher in form of improved conditions of services. The move will also eradicate the feeling of being demi-gods in our deaf union leadership.
We understand that there are statutory instruments that support their existence in whatever form but as long as they have defied their main essence of existing, it will be worthwhile to have union coffers take part in the rebuilding of our economy.
A stitch in time saves nine.
The author is an educationist in North-Western Province.