The Standard
By Bertha Shoko and Vusumuzi Sifile
20th September 2009
Temptation Muringisi, a teacher in Highfield, is struggling to master one new technique she was never trained to do: getting pupils to concentrate while learning under a tree.
Every now and then, she has to shout at her pupils to stop watching passersby and bus touts canvassing for passengers.
“As you can see we are out here in the open near the road,” Muringisi, a Grade IV teacher at Mutasa School in Highfield told visiting government and United Nations officials last week.
“When a child hears the conductors yelling for passengers, they are attracted by the commotion.
“Children are curious by nature and at Grade IV we will be punishing them really to expect anything else.”
Although Mutasa’s case is unique in that the school is in an urban setting, learning under trees is a common feature in Zimbabwe.
Exactly a year after Zanu PF and the two MDC formations signed a power-sharing agreement and seven months after the formation of an inclusive government, the education sector remains in the doldrums.
According to the Rapid Assessment of Primary and Secondary Education (Rapse) report by the National Education Advisory Board (Neab) released last week the country’s education sector needs a complete overhaul.
The 14-member Neab was set up by the new Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart and the Rapse was undertaken to give him an appreciation of the challenges he had to confront.
The findings were shocking. From the 120 schools sampled, 196 829 pupils who enrolled for Grade 1 did not proceed to secondary school.
In some provinces, like Matabeleland North, “the dropout rate was high, with over 50% dropout from Grades 1 – 7”.
“Such a large number of dropouts can prove a politically and socially destabilising force, particularly given the lack of economic growth and lack of employment opportunities,” says the report.
The report warns Zimbabwe has “fallen woefully behind” other countries in providing primary education.
Half of the students who enrol for primary school drop out before they reach secondary school.
Most of these children end up unemployed, with “a serious potential for political and social destabilization”.
But for those who have been to other schools in the country, Mutasa Primary is much better.
The Neab report says in Matabeleland North, for example, “all the secondary schools visited had practically collapsed”.
According to a recent review of primary schools by the UNICEF, schools countrywide are facing serious shortages of learning materials like textbooks.
About 20% of primary schools had no textbooks at all for English, Mathematics or an African language.
UNICEF estimates that the Grade VII examination pass rates declined from 53% in 1999 to 33% in 2007 while almost 50% of Zimbabwe’s children graduating from primary school were not proceeding to secondary school.
The Neab report proposes urgent reforms – most of which do not need funding if the Ministry of Education, Sports, Art and Culture is to contain the situation.
The report proposes that primary education should be free for all pupils, as is the case in some southern African countries.
“Zimbabwe has fallen woefully behind her Sadc colleagues in this regard. Free basic education must be seen as a public as well as personal good, and essential for the healthy development of the country,” the report adds.
Unicef last week launched a US$70 million Educational Transition Fund (ETF) to ensure access and quality education for the country’s children.
The fund – supported by Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the European Commission -will be used to buy critical textbooks and learning materials.
The Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam) has also been revived to assist vulnerable children with payment of levies, tuition and examination fees. At least 700 000 children will benefit from Beam.
Speaking at the launch of these lifelines for Zimbabwe’s education system at Mutasa School, Coltart said the future looks bright for the sector, which he said was in shambles when he took over as education minister in February.
“The education sector still faces numerous challenges,” said Coltart. “But the transition fund we launch today is a positive step towards the revival of the sector.
“Indeed it is extremely gratifying to see donors, government and the UN come together to ensure quality education for Zimbabwe’s children.
“As a government we are grateful and encouraged. “Coltart however admitted not much had come out of negotiations to review teachers’ salaries, and asked for donor support.
The low salaries, according to the Neab report, have resulted in teacher morale at its lowest since independence.
Says the report: “Teachers were demotivated by low salaries, lack of security in rural areas where teachers became victims of political violence in 2008, lack of accommodation and shortages of teaching and learning resources such as textbooks, stationery.
“The image of the teacher was at its lowest since Independence.”
Unicef’s country representative Dr Peter Salama said the support is a pledge of solidarity with the inclusive government in its efforts to improve the quality and access to education for Zimbabwe’s children and social services.
The widespread politicisation of schools before, during and after last year’s harmonised elections and the subsequent presidential run off had left teachers “demotivated and afraid”.
For example, “UMP District in Mashonaland East (which) had suffered severe political trauma, which led to the dispersal of teachers and virtual desolation of schools”.