Following the internal unrest affecting Zimbabwe in the past few months (for further details please refer to the May edition of ACA Newsletter – Education Europe), the situation of the education system in the country has gone once again from extremely bad to chaotic. The beginning of the third school term started on the wrong foot, thousands of teachers remaining at home (with lecturers having stopped going to universities since June), in another protest over poor wages. A memorandum signalling that current salaries covered not even transport costs and warning over universities’ “death” was addressed as early as July 26 to President Robert Mugabe, by the two of the country’s leading teachers unions: the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) and the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ). As the country is facing very serious economic problems, with the highest inflation in the world (42 million percent) and the fastest-shrinking economy (apart form the war zones), many lecturers migrate to neighbouring countries in search of better conditions. With the arrest of the PTUZ leader in mid-September, the situation seems to get even more complicated. At this stage, it seems very difficult to predict how long it will take before the country will return to a stable education system. The Zimbabwe Times