Sunday News
4 October 2009
Comment
The crisis that faces Zimbabwe’s educational system requires collective wisdom and effort to address. It cannot be left to chance or the whims of individual citizens because it concerns the future of the nation.
Children are the future of this country. It is to them (young people) that we will pass on the baton to run the affairs of this nation and it would be tragic if we were to hand over such reins to a generation of illiterates.
Although the advent of independence in 1980 saw tremendous expansion in the education sector in terms of building, equipping and staffing of schools, and enrolment of students, those gains are being eroded by the economic challenges facing the nation. For the first time the nation last year witnessed the ups and downs that obtained during the writing of the Grade Seven, O-level and A-level examinations and in an unprecedented development the results came out very late this year. Grade Seven and Form Four graduates proceeded to form One and Lower Six without results, which only came later when the school calendar had commenced. Some of the students had to suffer the humiliation of being forced to drop out of A-level after it transpired that they had failed O-level.
As if this was not enough a series of teachers’ strikes also crippled the smooth running of the education sector. Coupled with this Government came up with a regime of exorbitant school fees, which saw many parents failing to pay. This saw the authorities slashing the fees and directing that schools should not send students home for non-payment of fees. While some parents celebrated the slashing of fees, this was to be short-lived as authorities and School Development Committees hiked levies. For instance although school fees at Government secondary schools in the low-density suburbs are $20 a term the levy is US$100 at some schools in Bulawayo. This resulted in parents failing to pay and according to reports more than 60 percent of students at most schools have not paid their first, second and third terms school fees and levies resulting in teachers, who have just returned to work after a strike, getting a new pastime of identifying the non-paying children and sending them home. At one school in Bulawayo only five students remained in a 30-student class after the others were found to have failed to pay school fees since January.
The last nail was struck right on the head when more than 70 percent of the students failed to register for the O-level and A-level November examinations nationwide and the Minister of Education Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, announced that the deadline would not be extended resulting in a public outcry. An O-level candidate Gracious Thambo of Lobengula in Bulawayo had to file an urgent chamber application seeking a provisional order forcing Minister Coltart and the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council (Zimsec) to extend the examination registration deadline. Under pressure the minister extended the deadline from 25 September to 16 October amid reports that some of the students who had failed to register had since stopped attending lessons.
It is against this backdrop that we demand that the Government of the people look for money to pay examination fees for the entire O and A-level student body. Educating these children is a national responsibility and not a favour. Education is a human right. Many of our parents, brothers and sister perished during the liberation struggle fighting against Ian Smith’s bottleneck system of education. We do not want it to return.
We have to go through some introspection as a nation and ask ourselves why Bulawayo girl Gracious had to seek a court order to force us to do the right thing, extending the examination deadline. In fact the ministry and Zimsec should have just extended the deadline after discovering that 70 percent of the students had not paid their examination fees.
We need a comprehensive intervention to deal with this national crisis in the education sector. Money has to be found to pay for examination fees for these children and it is the duty of the Government to find the money because the role of any government in a constitutional democracy is to serve the people.
It is better to allow all the children to write the examination and hold on to their results next year. While we also sympathise with Minister Coltart we feel he should exercise extreme moderation when handling matters that relate to the future of this nation. Failure to pay examination fees clearly tells a tale of hopelessness among our people. It should knock sense into those teachers who are demanding incentives from parents to teach their children. We ask of what value is their education if our children cannot write the final examination?
Elsewhere, we publish a story in which the Minister of Public Service, Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, says Government is considering scrapping teachers’ incentives amid reports of corruption by some educators. We welcome this development because we believe it was uncalled for in the first place. Teachers are not the only Zimbabwean workers who are getting less than US$200 a month — soldiers, police, many other civil servants are getting this kind of money. We urge teachers’ unions to get to the industrial site and do a salary and wage survey of workers there before they demand incentives. Some parents are getting less than 500 rands a month. Where do they expect them to get the 60 rands a month per pupil from? We have to be realistic. If government is broke, where do you expect the povo to get the money from?