Sunday News
26 August-1 September 2012
The number of girls reportedly dropping out from school after the completion of their primary education has reached alarming levels and there is need for the Government to develop mechanisms that will effectively curb this trend, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Senator David Coltart, said over 50 percent of young girls meant to go to secondary education were being forced to drop out because of various reasons; chief among these being the unavailability of funds and societal preference to educate the boy child.
“Although I don’t have the exact figures off the cuff, I can tell you that over 50 percent of all girls who finish primary school education intending to go to secondary droop out and do not proceed.
“This in itself is a worrying figure and we have to try by all means to effectively reduce it. It should also be noted that the trend is also synonymous among the boy child but with the girls the figure is quite high,†said Senator Coltart.
He said the worst affected areas were the rural areas where most of the girls failed to get to secondary level because of lack or financial resources.
The minister said they were developing various schemes to ensure that every girl in the country attains some form of education regardless of processing academic merit.
“Recently we launched the Campaign for Female Education (Camfed) programme. Through this scheme we want to ensure that every girl child in the rural areas who can’t afford paying their fees and levies at least get a bursary regardless of academic merit.
“However this fund is inadequate. We need the Ministry of Finance to give us more funds to meet our goal of education for all,†said Minister Coltart.
The minister said Camfed will initially target 24 000 disadvantaged secondary schoolgirls throughout Zimbabwe with an initial amount of US$19 million.
He said education was a right for all which the Government had to strive to achieve and the first challenge will be to tackle the problem faced by the girl child.
“We really have to set our funding priorities straight as Government and we can’t allow this to continue. The more girls are educated the better the future as it said you educate a girl you educate a nation,†said the minister.
According to a report by a local non-government organization, Plan International, released last year, poverty, abuse and cultural practices were preventing a third of Zimbabwean girls from attending primary school and 67 percent from attending secondary school, thereby denying them basic education.