Low investment in education to blame for poor ‘O’ level results: Coltart

The Zimbabwean

By Edgar Gweshe

7 February 2013

The low investment in the country’s education sector for the past years is largely to blame for the poor Ordinary Level results recorded this year, according to The Minister of Education, Sport Arts and Culture, David Coltart.

“The real cause of this is the lack of investment in education. Since 2009, we haven’t had teachers, textbooks and the libraries are not properly functional.

Also, many school buildings are not safe places for learning and all these factors have far greater impact on the education of children,” said Coltart.

Out of a total of 172 698 students who sat for the Ordinary Level exams last year, only 31 767 students managed to get five subjects and above.

The results mean that 81,6 percent of the students failed. Last year the percentage of students who failed was 80,5 percent. Since 2003, the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council has not recorded a 25 percent pass rate.

Last year, the percentage pass rate was 18,4 percent out of 268 854 students who sat for the exams. In 2008, the pass rate was 14,4 percent.

Coltart was addressing a press conference in the capital where he was briefed about the Zimbabwe Rural Schools Library Trust by the Chairperson, Matthew Chandavengerwa.

The ZRSLT is an initiative that aims to establish libraries in rural schools.

Coltart said the exodus of experienced teachers who left the country at the height of Zimbabwe’s economic decline had taken its toll on the country’s educational sector. Zimbabwe lost around 20 000 teachers between 2004 and 2009.

“Between 2007 and 2008, we lost many teachers most of whom were teaching critical subjects such as English, Maths and Science and if anyone thinks we can achieve the same results without these teachers, then they lack an understanding of the education sector,” said Coltart.

He added: “These results were not inevitable and we are not out of the woods yet. It’s like a patient being told you are HIV positive and it’s so devastating but it’s not the end of the story because you can still get on ARV treatment and get better.

These results explain that we have a problem and we have to move forward.”

Coltart said he had instructed ZIMSEC to maintain high marking standards for the Ordinary Level examinations adding this could have affected a lot of students.

“I instructed them (ZIMSEC) not to lower the standards in any way. In South Africa they have lowered their standards but that does not give you the accurate picture of the results,” he said.

Meanwhile, Coltart commended the ZRSLT saying the move will go a long way in alleviating shortages of reading material in most rural schools.

“This is a very big initiative on the revitalisation of our education system. It is a tragic fact that rural libraries have not been properly functioning for the past two decades. Most books were worn out and no new books were purchased,” said Coltart.