…As the world commemorates International Day of Education
Thabiso Nxumalo
Zimbabwean education sector has for the past few years witnessed a state of chaos, characterized by teachers’ unions and government clashes over ‘peanut-salaries’, exorbitant fees coupled with indefinite school holidays owing to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic seeing the country lose the position it once held on the continent in terms of literacy levels.
Education is a right enshrined in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the declaration calls for free and compulsory elementary education, while the Convention on the Rights of the child, adopted in 1989 goes further to stipulate that, countries shall make higher education accessible to all.
As the world commemorated International Day of Education on January 24, schools in Zimbabwe are still closed, as they were scheduled to open on January 10, 2022 and Acting President Constantino Chiwenga further increased the Covid-19 national lockdown restrictions by two more weeks, putting the academic calendar on hold.
Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) president, Takavafira Zhou said it is high time government invests more in quality public education and restrict the mushrooming of private schools whose main aim is profit making.
“This is a sad day for education, as it marks the fall of public sector education from grace to grace with monotonous regularity because of vandals masquerading as leaders.
“We have witnessed slackening of investment in public education, inaccessible and exorbitant school fees that have made education a preserve for the rich. We therefore call upon African governments in general and Zimbabwe in particular to invest in quality public education and restrict the mushrooming of many private schools whose main thrust is profit making as opposed to life serving skills that can enable children to function beyond the classroom,” said Zhou.
A Masvingo school head, speaking on condition of anonymity said the sector’s integrity is slowly being eroded by politicizing the education system which is draining the will of professionals in the field together with neglect of both administrative and physical structures especially in the rural areas.
“The gains we had made are seriously being eroded due to lack of political will in advancing or maintaining the enviable position we had attained as politicization of the education system has drained the will out of the few dedicated professionals in the field.
“Rural schools suffer neglect from infrastructure to staffing, there is no more moral to talk about in the system due to deplorable working conditions. This is as a result of responsible authority relegating its duty to parents and teachers to run schools,” said the head.
He also added that positively, the government has through initiatives such as Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) assisted the less-privileged in accessing education although the BEAM facility is at times abused.
“We however, applaud government and various stakeholders in their attempts to cushion the vulnerable through initiatives such as BEAM, but the effort is diluted by abuse of the system and lack of funding resulting in schools running on zero budgets, going for years before receiving funds.
“Envisage a situation where three quarters or more of learners are sponsored and there is no money for two years, hence schools struggle with buying supplies, textbooks and paying rates,” added the school head.
Great Zimbabwe University student, Calvin Muvheyi said the standards in most tertiary institutions do not match the fees they are paying.
“The education system in Zimbabwe is depreciating in terms of standards. We know that Covid-19 has dealt a huge blow in the sector and contributed hugely to the prevailing low standards, but makes it unfair as we are paying astronomical amounts of fees for micro semesters.
“The standards simply do not tally with the fees we are paying and hence we call upon relevant bodies to intervene,” said Muvheyi.
This year’s International Day of Education was running under the theme “Changing course, Transforming Education”.
