Sunday News
By Lulu Brenda Harris
13th September 2009
THE Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) will tomorrow launch the Education Transition Fund (ETF), which calls for one child, one textbook, in Harare, Minister David Coltart has said.
In an interview with Sunday News Senator Coltart said the programme is a short term programme designed to restore acceptable levels of textbooks in schools.
“Once that has been achieved we will revert to the existing system of allowing market forces to operate in the supply and distribution of textbooks,†he said.
The Minister said the transition fund run by the Education Co-ordination Group is a move to improve co-operation between donors and the Government.
“This was designed to facilitate dialogue and co-operation between donors and the ministry. It comprises ministry officials and donor representatives, UNICEF and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), which I chair,†he said.
UNICEF has been sponsoring schools with textbooks countrywide for years but this programme only took off in February this year.
“When I took office in February I immediately started to engage UNICEF and the donor community to get support for the education sector, in particular for teachers’ incentives and for learning materials including textbooks,†he said.
The one child, one textbook programme is part of the ministry’s plan to review the country’s education system.
The Education Co-ordination Group is working towards providing a wide range of education material and assistance in the ministry’s restructuring exercise.
“There are ongoing efforts to secure funds to assist teachers and the ETF will eventually work towards procuring a wide range of education materials and will also provide funding for technical assistance to assist the ministry restructure and revitalise its operations. It is thus a vital part of the ministry’s plan to revitalise education,†said Senator Coltart.
Every child in the country is set to benefit from this programme and improve distribution of textbooks in schools as some lack these for the students but the exercise is estimated to cost US$90 million for it to be successful meaning a lot of work needs to be done to reach that target.
The scheme will cater for core textbooks required by both primary and secondary students.
“There are close to three million school children in Zimbabwe. All children will benefit from the scheme although at this stage we will not achieve our aim of reaching a 1:1 ratio of textbooks to children.
“This stage of the programme to obtain textbooks will greatly improve the ratios (which are as high as 1:36 in some schools) but there will remain much work to be done to get the ratios down to acceptable levels. We have estimated in the Ministry that it could cost up to US$90 million to achieve a 1:1 ratio,†he said.
The plan is to get many textbooks printed locally to subsidise costs and produce sufficient quantities within the specified time frame.
The ministry is also collaborating with local publishing houses to produce many copies at a low price as a move seen to be patriotic in reviving the country’s education.
“We are collaborating with publishing houses to ensure that we are able to produce the maximum number of textbooks at the lowest possible cost.
“We have asked publishing houses not to see this as an opportunity to make windfall profits but to cut their profit back to a minimum in the interests of Zimbabwean children and as a national patriotic effort to stabilise this critical sector which is in such chaos at present,†he said.