Zimbabwean
By Fungi Kwaramba
21 July 2010
HARARE – Esrom Mukarati 11 (not real name) wakes up everyday and watches his peers going to school. He would dearly love to join them, but his parents do not have money to give him a basic education. As a result he has become a young vendor whose life is tied to selling vegetables.
According to the Minister of Education, Senator David Coltart, thousands of children are in the same boat as Esrom. Their parents are finding it difficult to send them to school and prepare them for a life to come.
“I last went to school in May when schools opened but I was expelled because my parents could not afford the fees,” said Esrom.
Such is the tale of the young boy whose hopes of one day becoming a doctor are fast fading into the oblivion.
But Coltart is well aware of this and is currently in the process of making basic education free to all so that children like Esrom, whose parents are unemployed, will have an equal opportunity with others, at least at primary school level.
According to latest statistics from the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZVAC): Of the pupils of school going age (6-17years), 86 % were attending school, 8% were drop outs, 3% had left school, 2 % were not attending school and 1% had never been to school.
However Coltart does not entirely agree with the ZVAC saying that the statistics are very conservative, in some areas especially in rural areas 75% of students have dropped out of school.
“As the Minister of Education my number one priority is to restore education for all and after that to restore the integrity of the teachers. It does not matter how many text books you have as long as morale is low among the teaching staff then they will not be any progress in restoring basic education,” said Coltart.
“We are currently in breach of the International Convention of Children Rights to which Zimbabwe is a signatory. It says that children should have access to education this has been caused by the fact that the costs of education has been transferred to parents due to underfunding by the state,†he added.
Thousands of teachers mostly of Mathematics, Science and English have left the profession due to the low salaries that the pre-Inclusive Government was offering. While a significant number of the teachers have returned between the period of 2009 and 2010 many students are being expelled from school due to failure to pay the mandatory top up payments that teachers are demanding in order to supplement the salaries that the cash strapped government affords them.
Even though the Government of Zimbabwe has a facility Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) to help poor children like Esrom see through their education; it is now overwhelmed by the number of children who are in need of assistance.
“We need to review BEAM so that all children who need assistance get it; we have more parents who cannot afford education. Ultimately though we will have to reintroduce free education for primary education, however that needs money which the government does not have.
“The education sect has been under funded and that has seen the collapse of education in the country. We have seen the deterioration of the physical buildings at schools, we have also seen a dramatic reduction in the student book ratio,” said Coltart.
However, Coltart said the picture was not all bleak as the Government has already secured $42million of the $52million which his ministry required in order to resuscitate the education sector which has been on a free fall.
“We have started re-introducing basic education. Teachers are going back to school and education material is being distributed to schools. Shortly we will be delivering text books that will see the student to text book ratio dropping to one and then we will move to refurbishing the toilets at schools which are in had shape. Our initial target will be the sanitary conditions so that we will ensure that every school is safe,†he said.
However, for now, children like Esrom will have to wait a little for the Government to re-introduce free education which the minister said has already started to take place in Zimbabwe Primary Schools.