Mozambican teachers made it known on Wednesday 20 November that they are going ahead with the ‘freezing’ of grades until the debts relating to overtime pay are fully settled.
According to the spokesman for the National Teachers‘ Association (Anapro), Marcos Mulima, the decision to freeze teachers’ grades for the third quarter of the 2024 academic year, which affects the exam period, will be maintained until payment is made, emphasising that the situation is long-standing.
‘Just today [Wednesday] we submitted a letter informing the Ministry of Education that there will be a freeze on results and that there will be no grading council, which could consequently undermine the preparation process leading up to the exams,’ explained Mulima.
The spokesman for Anapro, which represents around 4,000 teachers and which held a demonstration in Maputo demanding these payments, emphasised that without the payment of overtime that has been overdue since 2022, ‘there will be no delivery of grades, nor will there be any exams for the 10th and 12th classes’ in Mozambique this school year, which is about to end.
‘There is no longer a deadline, it’s today and now. We will only return to a normal classroom environment when payment is made,’ he concluded.
Meanwhile, after an emergency meeting, the secretary-general of the National Teachers‘ Organisation (ONP), Teodoro Muidumbe, said that the Executive had committed to making the payments by the end of November, so as to avoid “chaos” in the education sector, stressing that if the situation is not properly regularised, the students’ grades will not be published.
‘We have received assurances from the government that these payments will be regularised. The Ministry of Economy and Finance will normally pay the overtime for 2024,’ he said.
In April, the Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, said that the government had already paid 227.4 million meticals in overtime to teachers, justifying the existence of ‘unfounded pay claims’.
‘In the education sector, a debt of 361.6 million meticals has been validated, and 227.4 million meticals has already been paid in overtime allowances,‘ said Maleiane at the time, speaking in the Assembly of the Republic during the Executive’s response session to MPs’ questions.
