Sunday Times (South Africa)
12 September 2010
The unity government, the international donor community and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) this week launched a massive nationwide programme to get education back on track in Zimbabwe.
Once commended worldwide for its education policy, Zimbabwe’s education sector all but collapsed as President Robert Mugabe and Zanu-PF’s economic policies brought the country to ruin.
The first steps towards righting those wrongs began early this week with the distribution of stationery and textbooks covering all core subjects to 5575 primary schools across the country.
The programme is being funded by the Educational Transition Fund (ETF). The ETF – a multi-donor funding mechanism – was launched a year ago and is designed to mobilise resources for the education sector.
In recent times, up to 10 pupils have been forced to share one textbook, while 20% of primary schools in the country have no English, mathematics or indigenous language textbooks.
“Because of this visionary partnership, Zimbabwean children will go back to school with books and learning materials for the first time in years,” said David Coltart, the minister of education, sport, arts and culture.
“It is a profound recognition that education is the foundation of Zimbabwe’s recovery,” Coltart said.
Over the past decade and against great odds, local communities managed to keep their children in school and maintained a high national enrolment despite a declining economy, rising unemployment, an orphans crisis and an under-resourced education sector that was near collapse.
Twenty percent of the textbooks are being printed in Zimbabwe and the remainder in the region.