Media Global New York
By Rachel Pollock
11 March 2010
On 8 March 2010, 600 members of Women and Men of Zimbabwe (WOZA) gathered in the city of Bulawayo to protest Minister of Education David Coltart and his stance against banning parents’ incentives for teachers. Coltart told parliament last week, “There has been lawlessness in the education sector and demanding incentives, unless approved as levies, is illegal because it is extortion, but if incentives are to be scrapped off, I have no doubt there won’t be any classes because teachers will leave the profession.”
While it is illegal in Zimbabwe for teachers to accept payment incentives from parents, a recent decline in civil servant salaries due to the Mugabe administration, have resulted in insufficient compensation and the loss of many teachers. Christian Karega who is the President and Co-founder of Zimbabwe’s Education Fund told MediaGlobal, “Education is just one of the many resources that has been severely impacted by Zimbabwe’s socioeconomic and political situation. When we started the Zimbabwe Education Fund in 2008, the majority of rural schools were closed. When schools finally reopened, the government had a difficult time supporting schools, so parents were left to rebuild the devastated school system on their own.”
In recent years, there have been numerous strikes and school closings as a result of poor teacher salaries. Teachers are complaining that salaries are not even close to providing livable wages and many teachers are demanding to be paid in U.S. dollars because of high inflation. Just last November a teacher strike was called off pending a wage deal with the Mugabe administration; however, the issue was not resolved and continues to cause conflict and turmoil within the education system.
According to UNICEF, school attendance dropped from 80 percent to 50 percent in 2008 in Zimbabwe. Furthermore, exam scores have shown that grade seven pass rates have declined rapidly from 53 percent in 1999 to 33 percent in 2007. Tsitsi Singizi from UNICEF told MediaGlobal, “Zimbabwean children have lost much of the last two academic years. Between long running industrial actions, strikes, limited learning materials, political violence and displacements, Zimbabwe’s education sector has been struggling.”
Despite these problems, the education system was not always in crisis. Robert Mugabe was once praised for the advancements he made to the education system, boasting one of the highest literacy rates and the most esteemed educational institutions in Africa. In 1980, education was made free, but since 1988, parents have seen a steady increase in school fees. While the fees ensure steady employment of teachers, incentives have also been used as a tool of corruption, with teachers demanding outrageous sums of money from families who can’t afford it.
UNICEF has developed several projects devoted to rebuilding the education system in Zimbabwe. This includes a $50 million multi-donor educational transition fund, which will provide textbooks and learning materials to 5,300 primary schools in Zimbabwe. UNICEF also supports the Basic Education Assistance Module, which is a government program that pays the school fees for children in need. In 2010, this program aims to ensure that 560,000 children are not turned away from school because they can’t afford their fees. Finally, UNICEF provides monetary support to the Schools for Africa Programme, which enables construction and furnishing of primary schools in the most vulnerable districts.
Programs like those supported by UNICEF are crucial to the future of education in Zimbabwe; however, most organizations agree that cooperation from the local government is essential to the long-term success of these programs. Karega told MediaGlobal, “The Zimbabwe Education Fund (ZEF) believes that a long-term holistic approach is necessary to improve the education system in Zimbabwe. In the end, repairing a once thriving education system is not a short-term project. Instead, it will take decades of careful implementation to have a meaningful impact. We strongly believe that any effort to revitalize Zimbabwe’s schools must start with a long-term commitment to Zimbabwean students.”