adminthe list with 35 secondary schools although the country falls behind Zimbabwe on third position on the literacy rate rankings with 86,4 percent. Zimbabwe leads the continent at 90,7 percent literacy.
Equatorial Guinea occupies second position on the literacy rate with 87 percent but the country has only one secondary school in the top 100. The list shows that private schools and international schools, including missionary schools, outperform Government ones in terms of infrastructure and quality.
Government schools have fees that are lower than those charged at private schools.
Among the Zimbabwean top schools are St George’s College (Number 5), Prince Edward (6), Gateway (20), St James High (25), Hamilton High (42), Arundel (48), Harare International School (54) Waddilove High (59) and Christian Brothers’ College (63).
Others are Mount Pleasant High (65), Chisipite (67), Kutama College (69), Townsend High (98) and St Patrick’s (100).
The dominance by Zimbabwe comes despite the economic sanctions imposed by the West that have hit the country’s education sector by derailing Government’s capacity to fund the education sector.
Sound policies initiated by President Mugabe and Zanu-PF that saw the largest chunk of the national budget going to education have seen the country overcoming the sanctions that had chipped away at investments made in the education sector since 1980.
The recently launched Zanu-PF manifesto ahead of the July 31 harmonised elections identifies education as a critical pillar of the indigenisation and economic empowerment agenda. “The successful implementation of the indigenisation and people’s empowerment policy is essentially a boardroom challenge that requires the achievement-based skills not only to meet the demands of the emerging knowledge-driven Zimbabwean economy, but also be able to compete with positive results in the global telecommunications village.
“This is only possible through Zanu-PF’s policy of education for all,’’ reads the party’s 2013 Election manifesto.
Online Reporter