Better year for education sector

Although the Global Competitiveness report for 2011 showed the country’s educational system to be on the decline, various strides were made this year to ensure that Zimbabwe maintains its position as one of the leading countries on the continent.
The year saw the completion of a textbook scheme under the Educational Trust Fund given to all primary and some secondary schools, and general improvement in the delivery of lessons.
Education, arguably one of the worst-hit areas by the economic sanctions, however, continued on a recovery mode though there were areas that required urgent attention among them remuneration, teachers’ incentives, extra lessons, employment of temporary teachers and payment of teachers who were granted amnesty to rejoin the ministry after deserting it.
Government with the assistance of its partners managed to bring back the glow in education.
Despite continued threats of strikes by civil servants, the education sector moved ahead though at a snail’s pace, resulting in almost all schools and tertiary colleges reopening doors to students.
Most critical to the recovery of the sector was a textbook programme for school pupils that aimed at availing textbooks to every child. The programme that started in 2009 and continued into this year saw all primary schools in the country getting textbooks under ETF. Exercise books were also availed to primary schools to enable the schools to function properly.
A total of US$30 million worth of primary school textbooks were handed over to the Ministry of Education and have since been distributed under the fund.
The programme continued with textbooks for secondary schools. In November, government launched a US$18 million secondary school textbook and learning material scheme that is meant to reduce the book to pupil ratio from 1:10 to 1:1.
The programme is expected to benefit over 800 000 pupils in the country’s 2 345 secondary schools.
The bulk of the books has been procured and will be in the schools by the end of January next year.
The availability of reading text and the improvement in teacher availability also saw an improvement in the October-November 2010 examination results though the rural schools continued to lag behind.
Pass rates in the country’s tertiary institutions also improved significantly, a situation that is attributable to the improving lecturer/student ratio.
Unlike in the previous years, the timely disbursement of the Basic Education Assistance Model and cadetship funds helped ease financial problems for pupils and students.
However, the money was inadequate as demand continued to soar as more people fell victim to the harsh economic conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe. The proposed reintroduction of student grants at state universities and colleges died a natural death as it later emerged that the Ministry of Finance had no funds to finance the programme.
Private investment in the education sector continued to grow with a number of private and trust schools coming in to complement Government in education delivery. Unfortunately, the local churches’ participation in education remained subdued.
Despite low remuneration, the Government managed to keep its workers at work. Payment of incentives to teachers and lecturers helped in diffusing tension between government and the teaching fraternity.
The incentives, however, courted a fierce debate with one group calling for their immediate removal on the grounds that the economic situation had improved while the other group argued that they should stay until the Government is able to pay salaries that are above the poverty datum line.
Both sides, however, concurred that some school administrators were abusing the incentives.
Inaction by the teachers’ representative groups to force Government to review conditions of service for rural teachers saw the rise of a group that threatened to form a splinter group to fight for their cause.
The long awaited rural allowance scheme remains a pipe dream as Government is even struggling to pay salaries.
Another blemish on an otherwise good year for the education sector was the freezing of recruitment of temporary teachers in the third term, which left thousands of pupils without teachers for nearly two months.
The decision was suspended after cries from education stakeholders that children were losing precious time.
Equally disastrous was the decision to fire more than 1 000 teachers who returned to the country after having left during the height of the economic crisis.
They have also not been paid, with the PSC saying the teachers had been re-engaged unprocedurally. Zimbabwe currently has about 97 000 teachers against a demand of 111 000. A substantial number is filled by temporary teachers.
Parents continued to cry foul over the amounts being charged by schools for pupils to get an opportunity to write entrance examinations. The amounts increased from US$20 charged at the beginning of the year to over US$60 in October.
Fees remained basically stagnant though applications for increase of fees were forwarded by a number of schools for the first term of 2012.