adminThrough BEAM we have ensured that poverty does not have to be inherited, there is a good chance that the children, thanks to the fact that they could go to school, will climb out when they leave school. They do not have to be left behind.
By all accounts the system of selection, largely using parents at the schools and communities, works very well indeed. Cheating is almost unheard of because the people choosing the children who benefit know the families and know the children. As with so much of our education sector, everyone takes BEAM seriously and does their best to ensure that the most deserving benefit.
For the past three years, Unicef has taken up the burden of the programme for primary school children, resuscitated when we switched currencies, while the Government itself has paid fees for secondary pupils who qualify. Zimbabwe might need help to do a good job, but we pay a good chunk of the costs ourselves.
Now Unicef has pulled out, and while the British Department of International Development has filled the breach for the rest of this year, this is just a temporary emergency fix, to give time to Zimbabwe to figure out what to do. We need to remember that the world recession has placed huge constraints on the budgets of many developed countries and most have to cope with higher unemployment at home. So there is less to help people like us.
So what now?
The first thing we need is a determination not to let the scheme lapse. It is needed. Minister of Education, Sports, Art and Culture David Coltart points out that while the Government must do something more, the Government is stretched thin itself when it comes to cash. If State resources are the only finances then the programme will be smaller. It will not die, but it will be cut back drastically. For a start some of the money now spent on secondary fees will have to be diverted to primary children.
So others have to help.
The sums involved are not large. What a middle-income family may spend at a modest restaurant for a single meal, or what a small group of men might spend in a bar in a single outing on Friday night, would be enough for a term’s fees for one child. While the totals are in the millions, the amount for each boy or girl are in the tens of dollars.
In the BEAM system each school has a quota of children who can be helped. This makes it easy for others to help also without having duplication or unfairness. A church, for example, could offer to sponsor 10 children at the nearest school. The present ministry quota for that school would then be cut by 10.
These 10 sponsorships might well fill the gap between a more spread-out Government scheme and the present system, or might even be enough for the Government to divert the cash to a school which no one helps.
The private sector could help. One suggestion would be in a few months, when many firms spend on a Christmas party for staff and customers, to abandon that party, find out from the Ministry which school, or even batch of schools, could use the cash over the next year to continue BEAM, and send the money along.
There is a growing number of Zimbabwean men and women who have been fortunate in business and have made their mark and are living very comfortably indeed.
Many come from quite humble backgrounds and they got their start in life because they were able to go to school at a time when schools were free or fees were waived for children from the poorest families. They could show their gratitude by helping now. A modest gift to their old school would allow another batch of children, from the same sort of humble background, to have the chance to do something with their lives.
So long as the Ministry knows where the outside gifts are going, or better still if the Ministry could set up an account for these gifts and distribute them itself even if the donor makes it clear which school should benefit, it will be able to use its own budget allocation to fill gaps rather than curtail the scheme.
We do not need more children on the streets, we need them learning in school. A bit of generosity, Ministry co-ordination and a determination to keep something that
works and works well, going strong and we can do it.
Online Reporter