Zimbabwes public education is in shambles |
| Published: 18/03/2009 |
Zimbabwe’s once brilliant public education sector is in a shambles, with the government unsure how many teachers or pupils were in schools and without cash to revive the schools or pay teachers. “Our schools are derelict and we do not have accurate information on how many teachers are in schools, and the schools have been vandalised,” Education Minister David Coltart told journalists in Harare on Wednesday. Coltart said pleas to international donors for cash to pay teachers had yielded nothing to date – a situation that could trigger a fresh job boycott by the country’s teachers. Teachers unions said earlier this week that their members would not report for duty in the second term in May if salaries were not increased from the US$100 a month every civil servant is currently getting. “Our entreaties (for money) to donors have failed. Money has not flown into our coffers yet,” said Coltart, a member of the former opposition MDC party who joined government in February under a power-sharing deal with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU PF party and the main MDC wing led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. “While we are very concerned with the genuine demands of the teachers, right now I can not promise anything in terms of salaries,” said Coltart, who appealed to teachers unions to show a spirit of patriotism by delaying industrial action while the government looks for money for salaries. Very little learning took place at public schools last year as teachers spent the better part of the year striking for more pay or sitting at home because could not afford bus fare to work on their meagre salaries. As teachers left schools unattended and pupils to their own devices, hooliganism crept in and buildings at most schools were vandalised with doors removed and windowpanes broken. A semblance of order has returned to schools after teachers returned to work after the government paid them salaries/allowances in hard cash but staffing levels at some schools remained very low, according to Coltart who announced a 14-member body to help cobble up a plan to restore Zimbabwe’s schools to their former glory. The National Education Advisory Board is chaired by Isaiah Sibanda a, former permanent secretary in the ministry of education, former education minister Fay Chung, MDC member Trudy Stevenson and Sharayi Chakanyuka. Union leaders, Tendayi Chikowore from the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) and Takavarasha Zhou from the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe are also members of the advisory board. The board was tasked to carry out a detailed assessment of the education system and develop a five-year education plan. It will also provide advisory services to Coltart. Zimbabwe’s public education system was once highly rated and the envy of many across Africa but a decade of political crisis and acute recession left the education in disarray and without resources to maintain or develop infrastructure. The economic crisis also inspired a severe brain drain that saw thousands of skilled professionals, among them teachers and other education workers fleeing Zimbabwe to go abroad where salaries and living conditions were better. The government of national unity is seen as the providing the best opportunity for Zimbabwe to end its crisis. But rich Western governments with capacity to fund the unity government have refused to provide support until they see evidence Mugabe is committed to genuine power sharing and to implementing comprehensive political and economic reforms. Meanwhile Coltart said results for last year’s public examinations should be available by the end of the current school term in April. Answer sheets had remained unmarked after teachers refused to mark them because of the paltry allowances they were being paid for the exercise. UNCEF had to step in with the cash to pay teachers to mark the papers, said Coltart. “We should not have high expectations for the quality of the results. Children were in schools for less hours than expected per year and we had about 40 percent of teachers in schools. There was massive disruption of the school calendar last year and this will be reflected in the results,” said Coltart |
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