TEACHERS DESERVE MORE THAN PRAISE

Today Zimbabwe celebrates its teachers, the men and women who wake before sunrise, walk long distances, enter crowded classrooms, and still try to give children hope. These are the people shaping the future of this nation, often with very little support. They teach with tired bodies, empty stomachs, and broken resources, yet they continue because they believe education matters.

But praise alone is no longer enough.

This year’s Teachers’ Day theme speaks about recasting teaching as a collaborative profession. That message should not remain empty words on a poster. It should become real action. Teachers need more than kind speeches. They need support, protection, dignity, and working systems that help them do their jobs.

True collaboration can transform education in Zimbabwe. Experienced teachers can mentor younger ones, helping them grow with guidance and shared knowledge. Schools can create stronger networks where teachers exchange lesson plans, teaching methods, and practical ideas that improve learning for children across the country.

Technology can also help bridge the gap between rural and urban schools. Shared online learning spaces can allow teachers from different provinces to work together. Schools with better access can support those with fewer resources. Mobile teaching resource teams can bring science tools, books, and equipment to places that have never had proper learning materials.

Subject groups across schools can help improve teaching in mathematics, science, languages, and other areas through teamwork and shared national effort.

But real collaboration cannot grow in fear.

Teachers cannot work freely when politics enters staff rooms and classrooms. Education should never become a political battlefield. Schools are meant to be safe spaces for learning, questioning, and independent thought. Teachers should not feel pressured because of political programmes that divide professionals and create fear.

When teachers are afraid to speak honestly, children suffer. When schools become places of political pressure instead of education, the whole nation loses.

Collaboration also means standing together for fair treatment.

Teachers are workers, and workers have rights. No profession can survive when those inside it are constantly pushed into hardship. A teacher who cannot feed a family, pay bills, or live with dignity cannot be expected to carry the future of a nation alone.

Collective bargaining matters. Teachers speaking with one voice for better wages, safer working conditions, enough books, proper classrooms, and modern teaching tools is not selfish. It is necessary.

When leaders ignore these calls, peaceful collective action becomes one of the few ways workers can be heard. Teachers should not stand alone in this struggle. Parents, students, nurses, and other workers all understand what happens when systems fail.

Unity is strength.

Zimbabwe is losing teachers at an alarming rate. Around one thousand two hundred teachers are said to be leaving the profession every month. This is not just a labour issue. It is a national emergency. Every teacher who leaves takes away experience, knowledge, and hope from the next generation.

A country cannot build a strong future while pushing its educators into poverty.

The call for stronger legal protection for collective bargaining and lawful job action is important. Workers should not fear punishment for standing together peacefully for their rights.

Today should be more than celebration. It should be a moment of awakening.

To every teacher who keeps showing up despite the hardship, your work matters. Your sacrifice is seen. Your commitment keeps Zimbabwe moving, even when the system fails you.

But survival should not be the goal. Dignity should be the goal.

Zimbabwe’s children deserve classrooms with books, functioning laboratories, trained and motivated teachers, and real opportunities to succeed. Teachers deserve salaries that reflect their value, workplaces that respect them, and a profession they can be proud of.

This Teachers’ Day, let us move beyond applause. Let us choose action, unity, courage, and real change.

Because when teachers rise together, the future rises with them.