Academies of Excellence establishment deferred

The Chronicle

By Prosper Ndlovu

8 January 2013

THE Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture has further deferred the establishment of Academies of Excellence to 2014 citing lack of funding.

The idea to establish Academies of Excellence was mooted three years ago to ensure a rapid response and sustainable recovery and development of the education system with 20 schools identified to run the programme countrywide.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Senator David Coltart, yesterday said 2013 would be dedicated to rehabilitating three selected schools where the programme would be run on a pilot  basis.

“Lack of funding is delaying the implementation of the programme. However, we have agreed to run a pilot programme in only three schools out of the selected 20. These are Plumtree High in Matabeleland South, Mutare Girls High in Manicaland and Goromonzi High School in Mashonaland East,” said Senator Coltart.

“There will be no intake of students this year. Instead, we will concentrate on rehabilitating the schools and then have our first intake in 2014.”

Senator Coltart said $2,4 million euros, which translates to $3 million, was secured from the German government last year for the rehabilitation of the schools.

“It is frustrating that we have such delays because of lack of funding. We have not received any money from Treasury for the programme. Funding for rehabilitating the schools was sourced from the German government,” he said.

The programme was scheduled for January 2011 before being deferred to 2012 and later to 2013, as Government cited inadequate preparedness and lack of funding.

Senator Coltart is on record as saying $40 million was required to fully implement the project with each school requiring $2 million.

Under the programme, each province has two schools chosen for the programme whose first phase was expected to run from January 2011 until 2017.

The $2 million for each school includes scholarships for approximately 600 students, teacher incentives, upgrading and expansion of physical infrastructure, information technology programmes and other administrative costs.

Eveline Girls High and Milton Boys High schools were chosen as Academies of Excellence in Bulawayo.

In Matabeleland South, the academy for boys will be at Plumtree High while Jason Ziyaphapha Moyo High will house another group, which will start with boys and girls, although “it will be converted into a girls’ academy”.

In Matabeleland North, Binga Secondary and Fatima High will be co-education facilities with boys and girls.

The same concept of co-education will apply in the Midlands, Masvingo, Mashonaland West, Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland East provinces.

Harare will have boys at Churchill and girls at Girls High, with Manicaland having boys at Mutare Boys High and girls at Mutare Girls High schools.

The programme seeks to curtail loss of education opportunities, especially among disadvantaged students, through concrete, realistic and demonstrable returns on sufficiently focused investment in the education sector.

An estimated 40 percent of the intake at the academies will be reserved for academically talented disadvantaged children.