Political Violence and Intimidation Against Teachers in Zimbabwe

This report is a follow-up of a report published earlier in February titled, “Every School has a Story to Tell: Teachers experience with elections in Zimbabwe”. Whilst the first report is largely given in summary form, recording the violations that teachers have experienced since 2000, this present report gives deeper understanding to the violations and puts them in a global perspective. The report feeds into a broad campaign to promote the Right to Education by calling for the criminalisation of attacks on education and educational institutions. The report bridges the gap and provides knowledge of the existence and extent of attacks on education in Zimbabwe. One of the key observations is that Zimbabwe, though not in a state of war, is listed amongst 9 countries that are leading in the attack on education. This is largely due to the fact that during every election since 2000, the country resembles a state of war as a result of state-sponsored violence. But the attacks on education and militarisation of educational institutions have escaped the attention they deserve and have only reported under general human rights violations. The extent of the continued occurrence of attacks on education contradicts the claims of high literacy rate figures Zimbabwe has recorded. Importantly, the two reports lay a strong foundation for further research to aid the campaign to declare schools as safe zones for peace. These areas in need of further investigation would include specific aspects of the military involvement in education and political use.