Online Reporter
With so many thousands of schools in Zimbabwe, most in the public sector, it can be easy—even with supervision at national, provincial and district levels—for problems, shortages and inefficient organisation to be overlooked, damaging the education of some children.
Modern digital technology can clearly help, and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education will be using this extremely low-cost method to monitor attendance, teacher deployment, infrastructure delivery and learning outcomes.
This is being backed by an enhanced complaints procedure, allowing parents who notice possible breaches of Government policy—especially regarding the long-standing issues of school fees and uniforms—or who suffer from poor administration, to lodge complaints quickly.
The ministry has always had an inspectorate, with the right to visit both Government and non-Government schools.
The twin upgrades of real-time monitoring and more efficient handling of complaints will help inspectors target more precisely the schools facing difficulties.
Inspectors visit all schools. At the better schools, they are largely there to help the head and staff polish an already good performance, and to ensure that no one is sweeping problems under the carpet or manipulating figures.
Generally, such visits can be considered pleasant and helpful.
Where something appears to be wrong—especially something serious—an inspection team usually needs more time, first to investigate the problems and then to work with the school to resolve them.
In the past, this process has sometimes involved staff transfers, disciplinary action, mobilisation of parents and similar measures.
No one is trying to be vindictive, but the sooner underlying causes are addressed, the better.
Quick action is now possible with digital monitoring, but having a daily picture of an approaching crisis is of little use unless the ministry is prepared to act promptly.
Early warning systems are valuable, but they still require an active response if they are to be effective.
Another major change is the decision to end secrecy, which has been a problem in the past.
While heads run schools, there is no reason why parents cannot be involved and kept informed. Although they cannot take over administration from professionals, they can ensure that what is done is done well, and raise warning flags if they suspect standards are slipping.
An ideal school has head, teachers and parents all pulling in the same direction, willing to be partners and to share the burden. With fuller information, this will be easier.
The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education has the largest staff complement in Government service. Combined with the high levels of education now seen among teachers, this means comparatively few administrators are needed to manage tens of thousands of practitioners.
The overwhelming majority of ministry staff are teachers, which is as it should be to make best use of taxpayer funds, school fees and other charges.
This does, however, place a burden on the relatively small supervisory staff—fortunately, almost all of whom began their careers as teachers and therefore have a rich background of experience in what should be happening and what is sometimes missing.
Sometimes unexpected problems arise.
The BEAM programme was seen as a highly successful way of ensuring that parental income did not determine whether a child was educated.
Almost a third of schoolchildren in the public sector were receiving support.
Then last year, evidence began to emerge of abuses: children of well-connected parents were receiving funds, while some of the poorest families were excluded.
A sensible moratorium on payments was introduced while the system was cleaned up.
The education ministry now recognises the need to involve the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare more closely.
Social workers, who see the full range of problems and are specially trained to identify and assist the disadvantaged, can do this far better than education specialists.
Designing the new selection procedures—now rapid work in progress—should soon have the BEAM system running again, with the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion willing to resume payments, confident that this time the right families are being helped.
As schools and education systems continue to be upgraded, we must ensure that no one and no place is left behind, that resources are shared fairly according to need, and that someone with knowledge of what is happening ensures this is achieved.
We must continue supporting the ministry so that schools and pupils improve each year.
