The Chronicle
9 November 2011
Zimbabwe will endeavour to increase Government funding for basic education by 75 percent from US$469 million this year to US$822 million, benefiting more than four million young learners, a Cabinet Minister said yesterday.
In a speech delivered in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the Zimbabwe Global Partnership for Education (GPE), Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart said Zimbabwe, which has already abolished rural primary school fees, would offset the school costs for 700 000 orphans and vulnerable children next year and prohibit exclusion of learners for non-payment of parental levies through the reform of education regulations.
“We will further reduce primary dropouts and increase transition to lower secondary through the phased reduction of compulsory school fees and levies,†he said.
Minister Coltart said the ministry would introduce a major programme of second chance and skills education for out-of-school children and youth who have missed out through the political challenges of the last decade, in particular for orphans and vulnerable children.
Zimbabwe, he said shared the GPE’s vision of quality education for all and sought to nurture robust, international partnerships to achieve this vision for the children of Zimbabwe.
“Zimbabwe developed one of Africa’s finest education systems in the 1980s and boasts one of the highest adult literacy rates on the continent. All members of our inclusive Government are steadfastly committed to restoring Zimbabwe’s education system.
“In the last two years, we have made major improvements, including the reopening of schools, the provision of core textbooks for all primary pupils and the creation of a robust five-year sector plan,†he said.
Minister Coltart pledged that the Government would retain the proud achievement of gender parity in primary and lower education and expand access to quality basic education, especially for orphans and vulnerable children.
He said the ministry would establish a national baseline of early primary literacy rates next year, track it and improve it with measures including the mainstreaming of early childhood development at all primary schools, teacher development and quality enhancing per capita school grants.
Minister Coltart said that they were aiming for a 10 percent increase in attendance at the end of primary examinations by 2015.