Education Minister says no child should be sent home over fees

SW Radio Africa
By Lance Guma
4 March 2010

Education Minister David Coltart has said no child should be sent home because their parents or guardians have failed to pay school fees. Responding to shocking revelations in a BBC documentary charting the lives of orphans struggling to survive in the country Coltart told SW Radio Africa that although the law was very clear on this point school authorities were defying the policy for a variety of reasons. The problem he said was that some parents who were able to afford school fees were taking advantage and not making any payments.

Award winning film maker Xoliswa Sithole spent 9 months in Zimbabwe following the lives of some of the country’s poorest children. The documentary shows them grappling with poverty and starvation, growing up without an education and either orphaned by AIDS or caring for parents who are sick with the disease. On Wednesday Sithole told Newsreel in an interview that because these children were being denied a basic education their future was being taken away from them.

In response Coltart told us that in years gone by the government had the Basic Education Assistance Module programme to help children in similar circumstances. However funding issues linked to the collapse of the economy under the ZANU PF regime had crippled the project. He said in the last 5 months the United Nations Children’s Fund had made some money available and although it was not adequate to cover requirements it would benefit at least 600 000 disadvantaged children. The programme will be implemented closely with the Labour and Social Services Ministry.

Coltart meanwhile said education in the country was seriously under-funded. For example, he said in the first 11 months of the coalition government his ministry was given US$10 million to run education in stark contrast to the US$28 million spent on foreign travel. He said the country should comply with accepted standards and have education taking up at least 22 percent of the budget and not the current 12,8 percent.