Chronicle Editor
Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu – [email protected]
ABOUT 19 percent of urban households have children who are not attending school despite various measures put by Government to ensure education for all, a recent report shows.
According to the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) 2023 report, the children are not attending school due to financial constraints among other reasons.
The report shows that Zimbabwe instituted a social protection policy named the ‘National Social Protection Policy Framework for Zimbabwe whose policy blueprint articulates the Government’s commitment to protecting the vulnerable including children, persons with disabilities, and the elderly amongst others.
“To this end, for children, Section 75 (1) of the Zimbabwean Constitution guarantees the right to access to basic State-funded education to all citizens and in 75 (4) an express obligation is placed on the state to provide an environment that facilitates the realisation of this right,” read the ZimVAC report.
“To operationalise the realisation, the Education Act was amended in 2019. One of the provisions (Section 68C1) in the amended Act buttresses this right as it makes it illegal to exclude children from school for amongst other things non-payment of fees and levies.”
The report stated that despite the progressive institutional landscape highlighted, results reveal that some children were not at school and some had been sent away from school due to non-payment of school fees.
“. . . the results show that nationally 19,1 percent of households had children who were not in school at the time of the survey even though they were of school-going age. Most of these children were in Harare (20,3 percent), Midlands (21 percent), and Mashonaland East (18,7 percent).”
Of the affected households, 23,6 percent of households had children who were sent away from school for non-payment of fees at one point during the first school term of 2023.
Manicaland (34,6 percent) had the highest proportion of households with children ever sent away from school followed by Harare (28,7 percent).
In 2000, the Government through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education set up the basic education assistance module (BEAM) to enhance access to primary and secondary education for orphans and vulnerable children.
Through the programme, hundreds of thousands of children have gone through primary and secondary education.
The major chunk of the budget allocation towards social protection for 2023, ($23 billion) was channelled towards BEAM.
A further $1,2 billion was channelled towards assisting children in difficult circumstances in line President Mnangagwa’s philosophy of leaving no one and no place behind.
Online Reporter