Speech given at the National Launch of the BEAM Evaluation Report by Senator David Coltart

Holiday Inn Hotel, Harare, Zimbabwe

Speech given by Senator David Coltart, Minister of Education, Sport, Arts, and Culture

17 October 2012

Today marks a milestone in the launch of the evaluation of the BEAM programme. In response to the rising challenges associated with the macro-economic meltdown which undermined social services provision, the Government of Zimbabwe launched a unique safety net in the form of Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) in the year 2001.  BEAM is the educational funding component of the Government of Zimbabwe Poverty Alleviation Action Programme.  Its launch filled the gap created by the discontinuation of the Social Dimension Fund Fee Waiver Programme. The economic situation since that time has changed substantially.  BEAM aimed to reach 560,000 children.  A figure based on the 2003 poverty assessment survey study[1].

Unlike its predecessor which was centralized, the BEAM programme attempts in a very serious manner to empower communities to make decisions about the welfare of their less privileged children.

The Education Act, as amended, and the UN Convention on Children’s Rights classify education as a human right.  It is in that spirit that access to education by all becomes a critical national concern.  Hence the importance of BEAM whose objectives include the following:-

• Ø Prevention of school drop outs

• Ø Fostering the return to school by those who had left school due to inability to pay

• Ø Making it possible for children who have never been to school due to poverty to participate in education

• Ø Breaking the poverty cycle

• Ø Bringing the BEAM service in the people and fostering their ownership of it through nomination, vetting and selection of beneficiaries.

The BEAM evaluation was long overdue.  Gaps and weaknesses identified should form the basis for continuous training of Heads of Schools and the Community Selection Committees (CSC) in BEAM processes and procedures.  The values of integrity, empathy and transparency should be enhanced through such training.

It is also important that the two Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture and Labour and Social Services are materially and technically supported to effectively monitor, communicate with stakeholders and timeously disseminate information on payment of schools as well as to attend and respond to queries or other issues arising from such payments.  Monitoring of BEAM should be a continuous exercise at District, Provincial and Head Office levels involving both Ministries (Ministry of Labour and Social Services and Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture) whose officials should expeditiously process the BEAM application forms.

We have as a Ministry, and I have as Minister, borne the brunt of the concern expressed by the public, parents and guardians regarding children out of school. Not a week goes past without the press phoning for comment regarding children who have been thrown out of school for non payment of fees. It is also painfully obvious to me as I drive around Zimbabwe during school hours that there are many children not attending school. Whilst my observations are anecdotal they are now supported by empirical studies conducted in Zimbabwe during the last few years.

I note from the report that it is estimated from the BEAM Evaluation Report[2]that there are approximately 1 million children currently in need of BEAM support.  There are an estimated 3.6 million school age children (primary and secondary) in Zimbabwe.  The BEAM evaluation estimates that approximately 27% of these children are on average orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) who are too poor to be able to afford school fees and levies.  This finding is further supported by the Zimbabwe Early Learning Assessment (ZELA)[3] that estimates the number of OVC’s to be 25%.  Those children identified in the BEAM and ZELA report are of children who are registered and in-school.  The number of out of school children, not included these assessments is not known. However, the 2012 Vulnerability Assessment Committee report[4] suggests that 14% of the rural school age population are not in school, this is higher for boys (16%) than for girls.  Some districts (Tsholotsho, Bubi, Gwanda) report out of school percentages as high as 24%.  44% of the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee respondents indicated that the reason for being out of school was financial constraints, with a further 10% indicating that they had to work for food or money.

The BEAM evaluation indicates that 28% of primary school students need BEAM and yet only 16.3% received BEAM.  There are an estimated 2.8 million primary school students.  (28% = 784,000) : (16.3% = 456,400).  Approximately 327,600 primary school children are in need of BEAM and do not receive support. For secondary 24% of secondary school student required BEAM and only 17.5% received BEAM.  There are an approximate total of 800,000 secondary school students in the country.  (24% = 192,000) : (17.5% = 140,000). Approximately 52,000 secondary school students needed BEAM and did not receive support.  A total of 976,000 primary and secondary school students are identified as needing BEAM support, however, approximately 380,000 do not receive any form of support.  From this, one can conclude that we have a very grave situation on our hands.

The BEAM evaluation indicated that in 2011 the per capita cost of a primary school BEAM beneficiary was $37.66 per year (up from $8.20 in 2009).  The average cost of secondary school student was $113.98.  Based on these 2011 figures, to cover the needs in full, approximately $29.56 million would have been required for primary and $21.89 for secondary.  Accordingly, a total of approximately $51.45 million was required for 2011.  Given an approximate 3% enrollment increase an estimated $53 million is required to cover the full annual BEAM requirement in 2013.  This will not cover the ‘out of school’ children, the number of which are still not known, but could be as high as another 1 million children.  A comprehensive ‘out of school’ assessment is planned in partnership with ZIMSTATS (on the back of the Population Census) in early 2013.

The funding of BEAM has until now been inadequate and resources to the education sector are severely limited.  MoESAC to date in 2012 has only received $8.1 million for non salary expenditure, to run 8500 schools, and sport, art and culture!  BEAM has also been identified as one of the four major priorities of the Government’s agenda of accelerating their commitment to MDG 2.  Without these additional funds, Zimbabwe risks not meeting its commitments to the children of Zimbabwe.

This is a very serious situation that we face and the only way it can be adequately addressed is if massive additional funding can be obtained both from Government and from our friends in the international community. The former will require a dramatic change in Government’s priorities. For example how can it be that we have deemed the construction of a US$98 million Defence College more important than building and maintaining primary and secondary schools? We need to commit ourselves to a radical change in direction; countries like South Korea and Singapore decided to invest in education 5 decades ago and they are only really reaping the benefits of that now. Sadly an investment in education does not yield the immediate short term results that politicians need to be re-elected and that appears to be the reason why education is so neglected. But if we have a vision for a strong, vibrant Zimbabwe then that substantial, long term and sustained investment must be made.

Turning back to this report I agree that the long term recommendation that BEAM must “review its role in the social protection framework” is important. Ultimately Government must move towards honoring its obligation to make primary education compulsory and free (for those who cannot afford to pay), which in turn will remove some of the necessity for BEAM. But even in the short term we need much closer liaison between the Ministries of Labour and Education to ensure that we jointly arrange for all children to be educated through the most efficient mechanism possible. To that extent I see the launch of this report as the beginning of an intense process to address the deficiencies of our current system. It is simply unacceptable that so many children are out of school or dropping our of school.

I look forward to the two Ministries urgently implementing the recommendations of the Evaluation Report in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance.