Brighton Chiseva

MASVINGO –Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary Thumisang Thabela has bemoaned the situation in Zimbabwean schools which she said are still divorced from real life situations.
Thabela was speaking at the belated presentation of the 2019 Secretary’s Merit Award at Mutendi Primary School where she said schools were failing to meet the demands of Education 5.0.
She said schools should move away from the old education system where pupils were trained to cram bookish theories which they could not apply in real life.
“Our education system is still divorced from our lives though we have the competence based curricula, we need to teach life skills here at school not to teach theory.
“I often hear teachers complaining about Continuous Assessment Learning Activity (CALAs) but pupils do them every day without being awarded marks. I see here there are mass displays being done by learners, are you giving them marks? You want to wait to get back to class so that you give them tasks to prepare something about providing entertainment. You should give marks on these; these are actually CALAs they are doing and they do it every day,” said Thabela.
She went on to castigate schools for failing to utilize the Zimbabwe Learning Passport, a mobile application that provides free educational resources to learners, parents and educators and sticking to old ways of doing things.
“Why are you not utilizing the Learning Passport? The government has used a lot of resources to develop a number of things to transform our education but you are not using them. Failing to utilize a computer laboratory is a crime,” she said.
Tabela however commended Mutendi Primary School for having viable projects which she said help pupils acquire requisite skills.
“The school has viable projects such as bee keeping, poultry, having a herd of cattle, a nutrition garden and a 5 hectare dry land for agriculture mainly for grain and beans cropping. By being involved in such projects, pupils acquire skills and competencies to sustain their lives including financial literacy for managing commercial units.
“These income generating projects are in tandem with the government of Zimbabwe’s call for schools to modernize and commercialize as espoused in the National Development Strategy 1,” said Thabela.
At Chibi High where she was handing the Secondary School category Merit Award Thabela said education that has nothing to do with people’s lives was failed education saying it has to move from making people cram to pass exams.
“The old curriculum was a failed one, people were told to remember what Bismarck said; what does knowing that Tshaka’s mother was Nandi help a child? The things we were putting energy on do not matter but acquiring knowledge is what is important.
“We cannot continue doing things the same way and claim that we are transforming. We are saying enough is enough, today’s child will not survive if what you teach them is to cram here,” she said.
She went on to challenge the school to make sure that pupils are attached to the school bakery which is thriving so that they can use that knowledge to survive after school.
Thabela also told school heads that schools should go commercial and raise money to ease financial burdens while also making sure that they have viable agricultural projects where everyone is involved.
“A government decision was made that schools should commercialize, agriculture is now compulsory, everyone should eat from his or her sweat and that means one should contribute at least to half of the food he or she eats,” said Thabela.
Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (RCZ) Education Secretary Dr Julius Witmos Mutumburanzou said their schools are already commercial but to a lesser extend saying the emphasis made by the PS is enough for them to fully implement.
“All our schools have some commercial projects and now that you have said it, we are going to fully implement it as soon as possible,” said Dr Mutumburanzou.
The competence-based curriculum at one point faced criticism after government was accused of imposing the CALA system without the consent of other stakeholders like educators while at the same time parents are skeptical of the tasks involved as schools just delegate duties to learners and as a result parents will have to fork out of own pockets to pay for their children to do CALAs.

TellZim Reporter

Gweru- Global health institutions and communities under the leadership of the International Union for Cancer Control (UICC) have made it a tradition where they come together every year on February 4 to mark the World Cancer Day.
This year’s campaign is focused on uniting voices to act on cancer and close the care gap while the theme corresponds with the principle of the integrated approach to Non Communicable Diseases care.
Non Communicable Diseases Zimbabwe Network director Jacob Ngwenya highlighted that people with chronic illnesses could stand and fight together against common risks.
“People with cancer and other chronic conditions can stand up together against common risks like tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy diets, for better prevention. People with lived experiences can fight together for better care for multiple NCDs.
“As a person with multiple NCDs, I know how important it is to have support and medical care to get back to good health and I want this journey to be one that is less painful and more meaningful for people like me,” said Ngwenya.
Ngwenya also made a call to people with cancer and other chronic diseases to come together and amplify their voices in calling for the closing of the care gap.
“Non-communicable voices must call for NCDs prevention, treatment and care services to be readily available for everyone who needs them in Zimbabwe regardless of age, ethnicity, religion or financial status.
“Poverty mustn’t be a barrier for people with NCDs in accessing the much needed treatment, care and support. Cancer prevention must be at the core of NCDs response in Zimbabwe which through the Ministry of Health and Child Care has done extremely well in putting a cancer policy in place which we expect to be implemented to the last dot. It is very much cheaper to prevent than to treat a cancer from personal level to the country level,” Ngwenya said.
He also pointed out that some families have been driven to a vicious cycle of poverty due to NCDs like cancer compounded with the outrageous medical expenses attached to them.

Innocent Muraiwa

Bikita- Gwindingwi High School located in Masvingo’s Bikita West Constituency has defied being left behind in as far as academic matters are concerned with the class of 2022 posting impressive Advanced level results.
During the 2022 Zimbabwe School Examinations Council, the school broke its previous record in Advanced Level pass rate after six pupils notched fifteen points while the majority had nine points and above with only four pupils scoring four points and below.
From the statistics taken among all schools in Bikita district, Gwindingwi occupies position 13 which is the best achievement it has laid down in the academic field.
In an interview, Gwindingwi High Deputy Head Rumbidzai Mutongi expressed happiness over the achievement.
“The school has this time come out with flying colours which is the very achievement it never had since its establishment. We are very pleased because as a day school, we have shown our competence in posting good results.
“We managed to do away with the setbacks endured during the Covid-19 era when our pupils failed to excel due to the harsh learning conditions associated with the pandemic which were academically frustrating and restrictive. The situation was so bad as our school lost a number of brilliant pupils who eloped for marriage while some got influenced by environmental factors in which they were living which coerced them to drop out,” said Mutongi.
Gwindingwi High School Head Dereck Muzinda said the pass rate was propelled by an initiative idea of some after school studies.
“As the school head, I exhorted pupils to take their time, reading their books soon after the school’s dismissal time for daily lessons and normally I would urge them to use the time period from 15:45 to 1800 hours for studying.
“In trying to reinforce the knowledge of pupils in their related studying areas, I purchased a number of text books for every academic level that is from form one to Advanced level so that every pupil may go an extra mile in mastering concepts and skills and the move actually helped them for we could notice the emergency of the best performing pupils who could showcase their abilities to score higher marks in Mock examinations,” he said.
Gwindingwi High Senior teacher George Pasina commended the tremendous efforts which both the school educationists and learners exerted in bringing wonderful results.
“I applaud the well focused efforts which the school educationists and learners put in place to produce good results. Solidarity is a strong weapon that can be best used to harvest good results,” said Pasina.
One parent Eustina Chibharo also expressed her compliments to the school’s teaching skills. “Gwindingwi High teachers employ higher level teaching and learning techniques which makes life easier for pupils. My child Charles Bvaure got fifteen points and I could not believe that he would make it judging from his previous performances,” said Chibharo.
Bikita district is home to high flying Pamushana High where 103 pupils scored 15 points and above in the 2022 examinations.

By Zvikomborero Sibanda

In 2007/8, Zimbabwe experienced a record hyperinflation in modern economic history for a country in peacetime. The local unit was officially dumped by authorities in 2009 after it was rejected by the market as economic agents started to favour transacting in foreign currency dominated by the South African rand and the US dollar -the advent of dollarization reform (2009-2018). Although this reform relegated monetary policy arm of government, it instantly cooled inflationary pressures to an extent that the nation experienced a period of deflation.
After a decade, the government austerity measures and currency reforms which started in 2019 saw the re-branding of the ZWL, introduced through Statutory Instrument 33 (SI33) of 2019. The local unit was codenamed ‘Real Transfer Gross Settlement’ (RTGS) dollar comprising of all bond notes and coins in circulation, mobile money, and bank balances. On the first day of trading in the official interbank market early February, the RTGS dollar traded at ZWL/USD 2.50 before losing a staggering 62% of its value in only four (4) months to close June 2019 at ZWL/USD 6.60 (ZWL/USD 8.50 in alternative markets).
The continued excessive decline of the ZWL forced the promulgation of SI142 by Treasury on 24 June 2019 thus officially introducing the Zimbabwe dollar as sole legal tender for all domestic public and private transactions and settlements. It was however astonishing at the time that authorities could forge ahead with forced de-dollarization despite existence of a huge body of knowledge showing that successful de-dollarization only come when undertaken as a process not an overnight event.
Also, the deterioration of the currency was largely emanating not from the use of forex but from excessive ZWL liquidity growth in the market. For instance, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) statistics show high powered money supply popularly known as reserve money (M0) burgeoning by a mouth-watering 170% between December 2018 (ZWL3.3 billion) and December 2019 (ZWL8.8 billion).
High powered money holds the topmost position in monetary policymaking and since it is mostly currency in circulation with economic agents, it decides the level of liquidity and price level in the economy. As such, the management of high-powered money is thus very important to manage general price level.
Consequently, ZWL depreciation heavily persisted with the unit losing an average of 63% in official market before the re-introduction of fixed exchange rate regime in March 2020. By June 2020, perpetual decline of the ZWL in alternative markets influenced authorities to ditch a fixed regime in favour of the Dutch Forex Auction System. In its formative months, the auction system managed to bring sanity particularly in the alternative markets with the ZWL gaining some ground in the third quarter of 2020 (Q3:20).
Statistics show the ZWL reclaiming about 20% of lost value from an average of ZWL/USD 120 in July 2020 to ZWL/USD 100 in November 2020. The period also enjoyed a sustainable growth of money supply with reserve money growth registering a paltry 0.2% growth in Q3:20 relative 8.5% and 33% in Q2:20 and Q1:20 respectively. However, the stability was fragile as the nation returned to increased depreciation pressures in the Q4:20 partly in line with an unsustainable 47.4% jump in reserve money injected into the system.
Fast forward to 2022, currency instability remained a challenge for Zimbabwe with ZWL losing about 84.1% of its value against the USD from ZWL/USD 108.67 in December 2021 to ZWL/USD 684.33 in December 2022. In response, price inflation spiked during the same period from 60.7% to 243.8% (annual terms). Granular analysis show that apart from the unsustainable monetary aggregates, price inflation in 2022 also emanated from poor 2021/22 cropping season and the ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine war. A 2022 World Bank report show that at 353%, Zimbabwe had the highest food inflation globally. Also, the Bank estimated that about 40% of Zimbabweans were living in extreme poverty in 2022 as disposable incomes were decimated by ravaging inflation and income disparities magnified by a tattering currency.
After a brief moderation of ZWL decline in the parallel markets and inflation growth between July-October 2022, the trend reversed course starting in November 2022 likely because of elevated government spending associated with fourth quarter bonus payments and agriculture support as well as increased general demand. The local unit slid from ZWL/USD 800 in October to close December at ZWL/USD 900. In the same vein, monthly prices upscaled by 0.6 percentage points to close 2022 at 2.4% from 1.8% recorded in November. With so many risks to the 2023 economic outlook such as high corruption prevalence, general elections, unpredictable path of COVID-19 pandemic, and unending Russia-Ukraine war, it is likely that Zimbabwe will continue being trapped in vicious cycles of currency and price volatilities.
From the foregoing, one can conclude that Zimbabwe’s economic decay and entrenchment of citizens into poverty is largely emanating from poor economic management. This reasoning is informed by the fact that the country continues to experience increased forex generation. For instance, in 2022, Zimbabwe recorded its highest ever foreign currency receipts of US$11.6 billion dollars, up by 196% from the 2021 outturn of US$9.7 billion but ZWL plummeted in both markets. Generally, forex generation is regarded as crucial in aiding currency management and building of economic resilience.

Therefore, to put the ZWL and prices on a stable path authorities should consider some of the following alternatives:

Foster fiscal discipline: Unsustainable government spending leads to increased domestic borrowing which in turn crowds-out private sector investment and growth. All else constant, a flourishing private sector is key in employment creation, infrastructure development, output growth, and wealth creation. Also, monetization of unsustainable fiscal deficits, that is, government financing itself by issuing currency or non-interest bearing liabilities like bank reserves poses real risks. The risks include potentially high price inflation and encroachment on central-bank independence.

RBZ independence: A number of empirical studies have established that the more independent (ability to make monetary policies which are not dictated by political considerations) a central bank is, the lower the inflation it allows without injuring growth and employment goals. Also, a target and operationally independent RBZ will have more credibility which is essential in reducing inflationary expectations.

Increase Official Use of ZWL: In recent months, the government has increasingly shown lack of trust in its currency as many public services have been dollarized. Yet, the government is the single largest consumer in the market. A policy shift requiring most local payments in ZWL will propel demand and use of the ZWL in the market as well as increase market confidence in the local currency.

Agriculture sector: Generally, the Agric sector is the backbone of the Zimbabwean economy as it provides employment and income for 60-70% of the population and supplies about 60% of industrial raw materials. Also, food and beverages alone constitute about 30.1% of the all-items consumer basket. As such, the current financing model over relying on state support requires a complete revamp to ensure that citizens take farming as a business and reduce dependence on state. This will promote climate-smart agriculture.

Domestic Resource Mobilization (DRM): Given her rich natural resource base, DRM will be one of the best ways of reducing Zimbabwe’s overdependence on borrowing and volatile aid. It also promote sustainable development as government fund its own development goals, finance gender-responsive public services, and reduce economic, social and gender inequalities.

Economic and Structural Reforms: The government should swiftly implement these reforms to improve competition and market price discovery. The existing public institutions require reconfiguration in terms of the quality of personnel, operational procedures, and methodologies. There is also a need to improve the quality of public taxation systems to encourage innovation and address the challenges of the poor population in the welfare state. More so, with reforms, fiscal authorities will be able to tighten public finance management systems to curb leakages from corruption and illicit transactions.

Policy Consultations and Consistency: An inclusive multi-stakeholder engagement is crucial in reviving the broken social contract between government and citizens. This helps to avoid the ineffective top-down approach to policy making which injures policy ownership by other economic agents. Policy consistency is also key in boosting market confidence and building public trust in policymakers as they become assured that authorities will not renege on their prior commitments.

Zvikomborero Sibanda is an economic analyst and an astute researcher. He writes in his personal capacity. He can be contacted via email:

bravosibanda@gmail.com
Twitter: @bravon96

Tinaani Nyabereka

Shurugwi- The Minister of Local Government and Public Works July Moyo last week approved Shurugwi Town Council’s ZW$3.1 billion 2023 annual budget.
Shurugwi Acting Town Secretary Francis Charamba confirmed the development and said the budget translates to US $4.6 million.
Last year the budget stood at ZWL 1.1 billion and the performance was rated at 62percent.
“Council is determined to consolidate the achievements made last year and finish pending projects using the approved budget.
“It (council) will also seek to accelerate the provision of clean water to its residents through the RB East Mine water project which is almost complete and will supply the whole town.
“The other major project we intend to work on is the completion of Sebanga Poly Clinic maternity wing which is earmarked to open its doors to the public in 2023,” said Charamba.
On the education sector, council will work on the construction of a primary school in Sebanga to ease the walking distance for children in the area.

Tinaani Nyabereka

Gweru-based Anderson Adventist High School has once again shown how best the school positions itself as a centre of academic excellence as it basks in glory of landing the Education Secretary Merit Award.
The school on January 26 also revealed how it takes pride in upholding a decade of academic excellence.
Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary Tumisang Thabela applauded the school for scooping another accolade.
“It is noteworthy that this school is being awarded the Secretary’s Bell for the third time.
“This demonstrates the school’s commitment towards academic excellence with the head teacher also being awarded the accolade for the second time. It shows he is indeed a champion head,” said Thabela.
Narrating the school’s 2022 Advanced level success story, school head Caxton Mukasvanga said the institution’s ability to select learners and linking them to their studying areas of strength had been the secret behind production of quality results.
“For almost a decade now, the school has maintained a 100 percent pass rate at “’A’ level.
“The excellent performance of the school has been through the ability by school teachers to identify learners’ talents at form 1 and 2 levels so that at form 3, they choose areas they are passionate at leading to career pathways like arts, commercials or sciences.
“This is done with skills of performing tasks such that learners are placed into subject areas in which they have a higher acumen, interest and passion for,” said Mukasvanga.