Demise of the education system

Sunday News
28 Feb 2010
By Vincent Gono

SIKHOSANA Ncube treads his way to school early in the morning like other pupils. He is in grade two although gauging by his age he is supposed to be in grade four.
He is intelligent, determined and focused but comes from a poor background.

His class teacher always contemplated taking custody of him had it not been for the paltry salaries that are supplemented by the incentives they get from parents.
The class started by the teacher asking pupils what they would want to do when they grow up.

The pupils named various professions but to the teacher’s surprise no one expressed the desire to become a teacher.

Sikhosana said he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up despite his absenteeism from class because of the failure by his grandmother to pay the ever called for incentives.

In the middle of the session, the headmaster stormed the classroom with a book in his hand and quickly apologised to the teacher for disturbing the class for what he decided to term “a worthy cause”.

He quickly shuffled the pages of the counter book before announcing the names of the students who had not paid the incentives to the teachers, some of them backdating to the second and third terms of last year.

Skhosana was no doubt one of them and without wasting time they were all chucked out of the class and told never to come back to school until they settled their outstanding debts with their class teacher. He moved out of the classroom with a group of other underprivileged students and walked home insolently. His dreams of flying high in an aeroplane were shattered by the events that were unfolding in his life.

His grandmother had to weed a field to get the US$20 for the four months she had not paid the teacher.

Just when he was happy that he would attend class after paying the teacher on a Monday it was announced that the teachers had gone on an indefinite strike.

That threw young Sikhosana’s wishes of being a pilot into the sea.

The incentive business that was given the nod by the Government to cushion the teachers in view of their meagre earnings has become a thorn in the flesh of both parents and students as in some cases the teachers are abusing the facility.

Teachers seem to be quick to forget that had it not been for the innovativeness and the willing spirit of the parents as the initiators of the incentives there was going to be no such facility.

As it stands right now it will not be enough to mention and or talk of the education system of the country without mentioning the term incentives. The word has become so popular in education cycles to the extent that one may be forgiven for mistaking it for the name of the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.

The term has been coined to legitimise the requirement that forces pupils to pay extra amounts of money on top of school fees and levy, which goes towards the welfare of teachers.

However for education to be denied to the less privileged Sikhosanas of the country on the basis of failing to pay incentives is just not fair. Worse still if it is primary school education.

Concern has, however, been raised over what many believed to be the demise of the country’s education system and the abuse of the incentives by the teachers in some schools. They said it was not fair for teachers to abandon classes over incentives. They added that teachers should always engage their employer whenever they feel they were getting a raw deal than make the parents shoulder the burden.

In the same vein they concurred that it was not fair for Government to give its employees such paltry salaries and expect them to be presentable and impart knowledge energetically on an empty stomach.

“We want the education system of the country to return to its glorious past where we used to pride ourselves as one of the best in the region. The Government should act as soon as yesterday to ensure that everything is sorted out before the situation gets out of hand again. The strike by the civil servants especially the teachers is not healthy for the country. It dents the reputation of the country’s education system, which used to be the envy of many. We want our children to go to school and we also want the teachers to get reasonable salaries,” said a concerned parent Mr Simon Madzimure.

He said it was not fair for the Government to award a housing allowance of US$8 and a transport allowance of US$7 to the educators. There was consensus between the parents that the concept of education as a right and education for all that was adopted as a policy by the Government in 1980 soon after independence seemed to have lost track and the same Government seemed not to be doing enough to ensure the important right was restored.

“While the commercialisation of education is acceptable, the degree at which it is now being commercialised is a cause for concern to every sane and serious Zimbabwean. People invest in education and it has been taken as a bridge between the poor and the rich but the current situation if allowed to persist, will see the bridge being removed and the gap between the rich and the poor widening considerably.

“Politicians should therefore stop politicking about such national investment as education. The writing of a new constitution for the country presents a fertile opportunity for the country to ensure the right to education is not stifled,” said another parent Ms Pauline Ncube.

She reiterated that the idea of education being a preserve for the elite should be abolished forthwith and politics should not creep into the path of education.
“Politics is not a profession, so they say, it is only a privilege bestowed on a certain individual based on trust by a group of people in a democracy. No one has gone to school to be Member of Parliament (MP). There is no school for MPs neither is there a school for presidential aspirants. Therefore the idea of politicising the education system or any attempts at that will not be tolerated because Zimbabwe is surely looking forward to having bright leaders and professors who will stir the country out of the economic quagmire hence the need for the Sikhosanas to be accorded a right to decent education,” she said.

Prior to the introduction of the incentives teachers had left the country in droves in search of greener pastures due to the harsh economic environment that was characterised by hyperinflation.

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, recently said the country was in need of about 10 000 teachers. He added that there was an acute shortage of teachers of Mathematics, English and Science subjects in schools strewn around the country. The subjects are, however, the most important ones in the school curricula and the shortage of the educators in these areas should be taken seriously as a pointer to the demise of the education system of the country.

Those who returned after the inception of the inclusive Government were frustrated by the a tedious process with most of them spending the better part of last year not getting their salaries. Some of them decided to quit and went back where they were because of the frustrations they experienced.

Senator Coltart confirmed the frustrations but said his ministry was doing everything in its power to rectify the problems that were dogging the education sector and bring it to a sound footing.

He said it was important that the country be taken back to its glorious past in the education system, as it was not in a healthy state.

The Minister of Public Service, Prof Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, however, maintained recently that the Government had no money to pay the amounts that were demanded by the civil servants especially teachers.

“It is not in the best interest of the Government to pay the teachers allowances. We want them to get their salaries and we hope as soon as there is fiscus space we will pay them. We still want to engage them, they have not exhausted all the channels of negotiations on their disposal,” said Prof Mukonoweshuro.

He described as premature the action taken by the civil servants — going on strike pressing for better salaries. The civil servants unions decided to go on industrial action arguing that the Government was not being sincere in the negotiations.

Prof Minister Mukonoweshuro admitted that the strike paralysed the education delivery system in the country.

“The Government is not sincere in the negotiations, it is not serious. Teachers have been taken for a ride. They have been taken as a punching bag for too long. We have stretched our patience to the last degree and we cannot be seen stretching any further. The strike, though not in the best interest of the interested groups is the only language that the Government we hope will understand. Giving the teachers a housing allowance of US$8 and a transport allowance of US$7 is just a curse to our intelligence,” said Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) President Mr Takavafira Zhou.

Zimbabwe Teachers Association chief executive officer Mr Sifiso Ndlovu said the Government did not show any hint of seriousness in its negotiations as evidenced by unashamedly announcing the meagre housing and transport allowances, something he said was a true sign of the Government’s arrogant attitude.

They blamed government ministers for their propensity to spend on international trips that they said were of no substantive benefit to the country as a whole.
He warned that the strike might intensify depending on what the Government would offer as they go for a new round of negotiations.

The strike and the events of the past decade that preceded it, however, confirms the notion that the country’s education system is dying a natural death and there is need for the stakeholders to strike a balance before the country is like its regional counterparts whose education systems are non-existent.