Global Partnershi
Speech by David Coltart
8 November 2011
Zimbabwe shares the GPE’s vision of quality Education for All and seeks 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 Transitional Inclusive Government are steadfastly committed to restoring Zimbabwe’s education system. In the last 2 years we have made major improvements including the re-opening of schools, the provision of core textbooks for all primary students and the creation of a robust five year sector plan.
I, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture of Zimbabwe, pledge that we will retain our proud achievement of gender parity in primary and lower education and expand access to quality basic education, especially for orphans and vulnerable children.
We will:
1. Establish a national baseline of early primary literacy rates in 2012, track it and improve it with measures including the mainstreaming of ECD in all primary schools, teacher development and quality enhancing, per capita school grants. We aim for a 10% point increase in attendance at end of primary examinations by 2015.
2. We will endeavor to increase domestic government funding for basic education by 75% from US$469 million in 2011 to US$822 million benefitting over 4 million young Zimbabwean learners.
3. Zimbabwe, which has already abolished rural primary school fees, will offset the school costs for 700,000 orphans and vulnerable children in 2012 and prohibit exclusion of leaners for non-payment of parental levies through the reform of education regulations. We will further reduce primary drop outs and increase transition to lower secondary through the phased reduction of compulsory school fees and levies.
4. We will introduce a major programme of 2nd chance and skills education for out of school children and youth who have missed out through the political chaos of the last decade, in particular for orphans and vulnerable children.