The Washington Post
31 March 2012
Zimbabwe’s education ministry said Friday it is investigating how school text books donated by the U.N. children’s agency wind up in the hands of bookstores and street vendors.
The United Nations Children’s Fund has supplied 22 million books since late
2010 after a decade of economic meltdown that left many schools without
teaching materials. In some schools, scores of pupils had shared a single
book.
Education Minister David Coltart said Friday that culprits behind the theft
and sale of books — officially the property of government schools — will be
prosecuted.
The books, stamped and identifiable, sell for up to $10 on the street or $20
in a bookstore. A main teachers union says teachers may be stealing them to
make up for poor salaries of about $220 a month.
Coltart said the donated books became the responsibility of individual
schools across the country.
The joint schools program with UNICEF ended acute shortages of books and
made Zimbabwe the only country in Africa with an estimated ratio of one book
for each pupil, Coltart said in a statement.
The books were stamped with UNICEF and education ministry emblems and the
legend “Not For Sale.†Each delivery was signed for and accounted for by
principals at registered state schools.
Coltart said a likely market for stolen books was among unregistered and
informal schools.
The Progressive Teachers Union says it has confiscated scores of books from
street vendors and believes thousands more are being sold illegally.