Zimbabwean children go to school
© AFP/File Alexander Joe

HARARE (AFP) - "I was in class when I was told that an MP (from President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party) had come to the school, gone to the headmaster's office and asked for me by my married name," said the teacher who uses her maiden name at work.

"The headmaster convinced him there was no one by that name at the school and he went away. But when I was told afterwards, I decided I had to flee.

"I am so scared to go back, I don't know what to do right now," says the married mother-of-one from Harare, where she is in now hiding.

Zimbabwean teachers have been on the frontline of violence since elections in the country in March, causing many to flee or go into hiding and casting the country's education system into chaos.

"There are many of us running away," she added.

Teachers stand accused of having helped to turn the tide against Mugabe, the veteran president who lost the first-round of presidential voting and whose ZANU-PF party was defeated in simultaneous parliamentary elections.

After its formation nearly a decade ago, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change identified teachers as the perfect messengers for the party, not least because of their work with voter education programmes.

Furthermore, many served as polling and returning officers for the March 29 elections when Mugabe suffered his first electoral reverse since independence from Britain in 1980.

A student practices math
© AFP/File Desmond Kwande

Some have since been arrested and fined for electoral fraud while others have been the target of physical assaults.

"The situation has gotten out of hand," said Peter Mabande, chief executive officer of the country's largest union of teachers, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA).

"It's bad in several rural areas in terms of threats to teachers, verbal abuse, and some are being physically molested."

Takavafira Zhou, head of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe said: "What is happening is that you have systematic targeting of teachers, and as result three-quarters of teachers have not gone back to their places of work" since the school term started on April 29.

-- 'You get beaten by childen you taught a few years ago' --

Since schools reopened for the mid-year trimester last week, little learning has been taking place in several rural districts and some schools are being used as bases for local government-backed militias, unions and opposition members say.

Another teacher, a 35-year-old man who also asked to remain anonymous, told AFP he had fled the eastern province of Manicaland last weekend after being hunted by armed men.

"I am so terrified. Wherever I am, I am not feeling safe at all," he said.

"I need to go far away, perhaps out of this country is where I think I will feel safe."

A nephew who was mistaken for him during a tussle with his assailants is in a "serious" condition in hospital, he said.

Mabande of ZIMTA underlined that "beatings are so common that a number of teachers have decided to withdraw from rural areas."

"You get beaten by children you taught a few years ago. You can't get more humiliated than that," he said of the school leavers who have been drafted into militias which are terrorising villagers.

Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere admitted there had been violence which he said "has been over-exaggerated here and there" but said the situation was coming under control.

A mother helps teach her son
© AFP/File Desmond Kwande

"There are unruly elements who took the law into their own hands. It's been perpetrated by both sides -- the MDC and ZANU-PF -- its happening," he said.

"We are taking measures and things seem to be falling under control," said Chigwedere, adding that his ministry had been addressing problems in affected communities.

"Some members of the communities are joining these agitators and we are making them aware that they have everything to lose."

As polling officers, teachers are suspected to have deliberately overstated or understated figures in favour of or against one of the two main contenders.

"Teachers are perceived to have given voter education which ran contrary to the information residents had -- that you are to vote freely and for a candidate of your choice," said Mabande.

He urged the government to "act fast to restore order and a normal learning environment".

"The total impact is that the quality of education and even the numbers of children going to school is going to be affected," he said, adding that the violence was exacerbating the problem of teachers leaving Zimbabwe.

With a literacy rate of about 97 percent two years ago, Zimbabwe has been rated one of the most literate nations in Africa.

"What we are seeing is a complete paralysis of the education system," said Zhou.

"This is going to affect literacy rates."

©AFP