Zimbabwe’s teachers leave for neighboring states

A South African recruitment drive for teachers, combined with an exodus of education professionals escaping Zimbabwe’s seven–year recession, is creating staff shortages so severe that some schools are closing. At least four schools have closed and several more are facing the same situation. Teacher salaries have not kept pace with Zimbabwe’s official inflation rate of more than 6,000%, while neighboring South Africa has embarked on a recruitment drive for teachers to bolster their own teacher numbers. The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) said this week that 15,200 teachers had migrated to nearby states since the beginning of 2007. Read about the teacher shortage at IRIN News.