News / Press Release
The Way I See It - Zimbabwe's Education Ministry needs urgent help
13 Jan 2012 at 08:23hrs | Views
Thamsanqa Zhou Jr is the Director of Strategy for ZUPA, the association in Zimbabwe representing the interest of unemployed people or in poverty. He is writing the Column "The Way I See it" every Monday, in his personal capacity and is contactable on ethugtj@yahoo.com
Bulawayo - Last week, I wrote about the distressing case of children with disability in Zimbabwe and asserted that their rights are not being observed.
ZUPA, the non-political civil society organisation representing the interest of unemployed Zimbabweans and the organisation I work for asked the Ministries of Labour and Social Services and Education, Sports, Arts and Culture to ensure that all children in Zimbabwe have access to the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM).
I also highlighted the frustration of the civil servants especially teachers about their pay and supported a call for maturity in Government ensuring that the civil servants are not forced to go on strike.
Unfortunately, the civil servants' Apex Council does not sound happy. Some are believed to have started putting on toyi-toyi boots in case a call comes to confront both palm and fist and offload the anger and hunger that has been simmering for months. Their patience appear to have been tested to fatigue point.
In the event that civil servants go on strike, that, to me may either unite or destroy the GNU. Government Ministers have already demonstrated their unity in banning second hand underwear and in paying MPs £15,000 allowances.
I am eager to see which side of the picket line, Public Service Minister Matibenga stands given that curiously, she has been holding the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) Vice Presidency.
This week, despite all the advocacy and ongoing discussions between ZUPA and Government about the BEAM facility, many schools are reported to have sent poor children home for non-payment of fees.
It appears some schools are coming up with dodgy fees such as "registration fees", the levies or incentives and painfully, the entrance examination fee for form one, the first year of secondary school. Innovative fundraising yes, but not by squeezing the poor.
The schools that charge entrance fee for children to write examinations which are non-refundable if they fail to get a place are in breach of the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) which has been law in Zimbabwe since the 11th October 1990.
Entrance fees automatically excluded children from poor families. Also, entrance tests after grade 7 tests put young children under emotionally pressure, unnecessarily.
What is upsetting or surprising to me as someone working for ZUPA, serving the interests of the unemployed is that the Ministry of Education does not appear to have an idea how many schools are in breach of the CRC law in broad daylight out there. The Ministry has no idea what fees schools are charging and why. As a result some school headmasters continue to abuse the children in the full knowledge that the Government has no capacity to hold them to account.
Zimbabwe Education Minister, Senator David Coltart, in London for the World Education Forum conference is reported to have said there were no accurate records in the education ministry on the education sector due t a dysfunctional management information system.
Elsewhere, like in Pakistan, UNICEF and the donor partners have just built 35 new schools in Monsoon hit Southern Punjab in record time. Donors now believe in value for money. Zimbabwe may miss out on getting help due to lack of accurate information about the need on the ground.
One is tempted to assume that Pakistan may have more accurate records on the number of children needing schools and how many schools they needed than Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Education has. Otherwise, the needy parts of Matabeleland like kithi eGwanda that has not had any schools built since independence would have seen some assistance come their begging way. Some children walk for 15 Kilometres daily to the nearest school.
Minister Coltart is reported to have admitted that his ministry has no idea how many schools there are in Zimbabwe or where they are. He goes on to say that staff at the head office (read ministry) need training which will be funded through the Education Transition Fund. In the words of former British Secretary for Home Affairs John Reid, Senator Coltart is being asked to run a ministry that is not fit for purpose.
It is reasonable to assume therefore that the Ministry of education has no idea how many children are in school and how many children are out of school and why. It is obvious that the ministry does not know at present how many teaching vacancies there are in Zimbabwe and where they are. Caution is needed, to avoid creating another opportunity for ghost civil servants.
The honest Minister's concerns make sense. In 2005 during operation Murambatsvina, thousands of families were displaced. The "land redistribution" or what ever term one uses has resulted in many families moving into "plots" in what used to be commercial farms. Former farm worker families and owners have been displaced. There is no government portal that has undertaken an audit or census to establish where there people are and what services they need.
What is clear is that their children are either not in school, learning something under a tree somewhere, (remember of child who died in Mazowe while learning under a tree that fell on the children) or travelling long distances to the nearest school.
What is also clear is that ZUPA's call for an audit on the BEAM facility is urgent.
Poor children are being denied access to education.
One wonders what statistics were used for the first phase of the Education Transition Fund since Prime Minister Tsvangirai is on record for claiming that every primary school has been given enough books for each child by UNCEF.
It is natural for the Ministries to throw verbal stones at the Ministry of Finance even in the full knowledge that what Zimbabwe has is just a cash budget. It is for that reason that I agree with the ZUPA view that some of the money from the Education Trust Fund phase two donated by donor nations through UNICEF must be used to collect baseline data through out the country and establish a reliable database system.
The farm areas have no schools or facilities to enable the children to learn. In a country where even urban areas are short of teachers, there is no expectation that the internally displaced children have access to teachers. Knowing Zimbabwean communities, it will not be surprising to find one of their own in that community teaching the children by any means necessary.
Last week, anyone teaching children formally even as an unpaid volunteer would have been breaking the "law". That is why ZUPA continued to advocate for the Government to lift the ban on temporary teachers. Without doubt ZUPA is celebrating Government's change of heart and agreed that temporary teachers may be employed.
History will have it that Zimbabwe's education became one of the best in the world, at the backbone of temporary teachers in the 1980s most of who had less than 5 "O" Levels. Does one need Science to teach Tonga, I hear you ask? Some of the most successful people in the world are school drop out and never achieved a pass in Maths and Science at "O" Level.
The Minister of education, is on record for observing that some primary school children have no access a teacher who speaks or understand the children's first language. We see the resumption of recruitment of temporary teachers as an opportunity to correct this serious anomaly.
The ZUPA position, guided by the letter and spirit of devolution is that each ward community be given power by the civil service commission to recruit teachers who are in their eyes suitable to teach in the schools in their wards. This way, the communities become responsible and hold the teachers to account in the best interest of their children. That is why I support the position and request put by ZUPA President Innocent Ndibali that ZUPA be the recruitment agency through its nationwide ward council structures.
Given that the cost of living has gone up and the government is struggling to pay civil servants a living wage, the opening up of teaching vacancies may also allow those teachers who were forcibly deployed in areas far away from their own families and relations to transfer to their districts and wards of origin.
This is the only thing that makes economic and social sense. A teacher from Murambinda is better off living in their own family home and going to work than staying in Tsholotsho without any accommodation, water or electricity or understanding of the language and the culture of the children he or she is teaching.
Besides, the cost of "going home" in the event that a family member is unwell or for family occasions like weddings and funerals may be prohibitive for one getting less money than they need to live.
Devolution may reduce or eliminate ghost workers and improve the social and economic situation in the country. It empowers the communities to employ their own.
Maybe our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora may assist with incentivising teachers from and in their former schools. The ministry may need every little help possible.
That is the way I see it in this 2nd week of 2012.
ZUPA, the non-political civil society organisation representing the interest of unemployed Zimbabweans and the organisation I work for asked the Ministries of Labour and Social Services and Education, Sports, Arts and Culture to ensure that all children in Zimbabwe have access to the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM).
I also highlighted the frustration of the civil servants especially teachers about their pay and supported a call for maturity in Government ensuring that the civil servants are not forced to go on strike.
Unfortunately, the civil servants' Apex Council does not sound happy. Some are believed to have started putting on toyi-toyi boots in case a call comes to confront both palm and fist and offload the anger and hunger that has been simmering for months. Their patience appear to have been tested to fatigue point.
In the event that civil servants go on strike, that, to me may either unite or destroy the GNU. Government Ministers have already demonstrated their unity in banning second hand underwear and in paying MPs £15,000 allowances.
I am eager to see which side of the picket line, Public Service Minister Matibenga stands given that curiously, she has been holding the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU) Vice Presidency.
This week, despite all the advocacy and ongoing discussions between ZUPA and Government about the BEAM facility, many schools are reported to have sent poor children home for non-payment of fees.
It appears some schools are coming up with dodgy fees such as "registration fees", the levies or incentives and painfully, the entrance examination fee for form one, the first year of secondary school. Innovative fundraising yes, but not by squeezing the poor.
The schools that charge entrance fee for children to write examinations which are non-refundable if they fail to get a place are in breach of the Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC) which has been law in Zimbabwe since the 11th October 1990.
Entrance fees automatically excluded children from poor families. Also, entrance tests after grade 7 tests put young children under emotionally pressure, unnecessarily.
What is upsetting or surprising to me as someone working for ZUPA, serving the interests of the unemployed is that the Ministry of Education does not appear to have an idea how many schools are in breach of the CRC law in broad daylight out there. The Ministry has no idea what fees schools are charging and why. As a result some school headmasters continue to abuse the children in the full knowledge that the Government has no capacity to hold them to account.
Zimbabwe Education Minister, Senator David Coltart, in London for the World Education Forum conference is reported to have said there were no accurate records in the education ministry on the education sector due t a dysfunctional management information system.
Elsewhere, like in Pakistan, UNICEF and the donor partners have just built 35 new schools in Monsoon hit Southern Punjab in record time. Donors now believe in value for money. Zimbabwe may miss out on getting help due to lack of accurate information about the need on the ground.
One is tempted to assume that Pakistan may have more accurate records on the number of children needing schools and how many schools they needed than Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Education has. Otherwise, the needy parts of Matabeleland like kithi eGwanda that has not had any schools built since independence would have seen some assistance come their begging way. Some children walk for 15 Kilometres daily to the nearest school.
Minister Coltart is reported to have admitted that his ministry has no idea how many schools there are in Zimbabwe or where they are. He goes on to say that staff at the head office (read ministry) need training which will be funded through the Education Transition Fund. In the words of former British Secretary for Home Affairs John Reid, Senator Coltart is being asked to run a ministry that is not fit for purpose.
It is reasonable to assume therefore that the Ministry of education has no idea how many children are in school and how many children are out of school and why. It is obvious that the ministry does not know at present how many teaching vacancies there are in Zimbabwe and where they are. Caution is needed, to avoid creating another opportunity for ghost civil servants.
The honest Minister's concerns make sense. In 2005 during operation Murambatsvina, thousands of families were displaced. The "land redistribution" or what ever term one uses has resulted in many families moving into "plots" in what used to be commercial farms. Former farm worker families and owners have been displaced. There is no government portal that has undertaken an audit or census to establish where there people are and what services they need.
What is clear is that their children are either not in school, learning something under a tree somewhere, (remember of child who died in Mazowe while learning under a tree that fell on the children) or travelling long distances to the nearest school.
What is also clear is that ZUPA's call for an audit on the BEAM facility is urgent.
Poor children are being denied access to education.
One wonders what statistics were used for the first phase of the Education Transition Fund since Prime Minister Tsvangirai is on record for claiming that every primary school has been given enough books for each child by UNCEF.
It is natural for the Ministries to throw verbal stones at the Ministry of Finance even in the full knowledge that what Zimbabwe has is just a cash budget. It is for that reason that I agree with the ZUPA view that some of the money from the Education Trust Fund phase two donated by donor nations through UNICEF must be used to collect baseline data through out the country and establish a reliable database system.
The farm areas have no schools or facilities to enable the children to learn. In a country where even urban areas are short of teachers, there is no expectation that the internally displaced children have access to teachers. Knowing Zimbabwean communities, it will not be surprising to find one of their own in that community teaching the children by any means necessary.
Last week, anyone teaching children formally even as an unpaid volunteer would have been breaking the "law". That is why ZUPA continued to advocate for the Government to lift the ban on temporary teachers. Without doubt ZUPA is celebrating Government's change of heart and agreed that temporary teachers may be employed.
History will have it that Zimbabwe's education became one of the best in the world, at the backbone of temporary teachers in the 1980s most of who had less than 5 "O" Levels. Does one need Science to teach Tonga, I hear you ask? Some of the most successful people in the world are school drop out and never achieved a pass in Maths and Science at "O" Level.
The Minister of education, is on record for observing that some primary school children have no access a teacher who speaks or understand the children's first language. We see the resumption of recruitment of temporary teachers as an opportunity to correct this serious anomaly.
The ZUPA position, guided by the letter and spirit of devolution is that each ward community be given power by the civil service commission to recruit teachers who are in their eyes suitable to teach in the schools in their wards. This way, the communities become responsible and hold the teachers to account in the best interest of their children. That is why I support the position and request put by ZUPA President Innocent Ndibali that ZUPA be the recruitment agency through its nationwide ward council structures.
Given that the cost of living has gone up and the government is struggling to pay civil servants a living wage, the opening up of teaching vacancies may also allow those teachers who were forcibly deployed in areas far away from their own families and relations to transfer to their districts and wards of origin.
This is the only thing that makes economic and social sense. A teacher from Murambinda is better off living in their own family home and going to work than staying in Tsholotsho without any accommodation, water or electricity or understanding of the language and the culture of the children he or she is teaching.
Besides, the cost of "going home" in the event that a family member is unwell or for family occasions like weddings and funerals may be prohibitive for one getting less money than they need to live.
Devolution may reduce or eliminate ghost workers and improve the social and economic situation in the country. It empowers the communities to employ their own.
Maybe our brothers and sisters in the Diaspora may assist with incentivising teachers from and in their former schools. The ministry may need every little help possible.
That is the way I see it in this 2nd week of 2012.
Source - ZUPA
