BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

Zanu PF is currently compiling a list of graduate teachers who will undergo the Herbert Chitepo Ideological School training before deployment, a move that is meant to instil patriotism as well as avoid future job actions.

According to a letter dated December 19, 2019 addressed to all provincial chairpersons and signed by Chitepo Ideological School principal, Munyaradzi Machacha, all graduate teachers who are members of the party are set to undergo a “basic orientation course”.

“You are directed to submit a list of names of all party members who have completed teacher training and are awaiting employment by the Public Service Commission. The list must specify the year each candidate completed teacher’s training. Chitepo School of Ideology intends to run a basic orientation course for the trained teachers,” Machacha wrote in the letter, gleaned by NewsDay.

The Chitepo Ideological School is currently housed at Zanu PF headquarters in Harare but its tutors sometimes travel to various provinces conducting indoctrination lessons.

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Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe president Takavafira Zhou recently accused Zanu PF of attempting to interfere with the teaching profession.

“Zanu PF is contemplating on Hitlerisation and Zanunisation of the teaching profession by demanding that prospective teachers should first go through the Chitepo School of Ideology,” Zhou claimed during the union’s fourth congress held in Harare.

The current economic meltdown has resulted in teachers threatening job action demanding fair salaries.
During the last national conference, the Zanu PF youth league recommended that every civil servant should undergo the National Youth Service (NYS), popularly known as Border Gezi, as the revolutionary party tries to avoid a revolt from the masses.

The Border Gezi youth programme was introduced in 2000 by the late Zanu PF national commissar, Border Gezi, with the first camp established at Mt Darwin in 2001.

The NYS programme churned out thousands of graduates throughout the country. Some of the graduates were then placed in various government departments after being sent either to teaching or nursing colleges.