Education gets 52 vehicles

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said the Nissan Hardbody vehicles, which would benefit mostly rural areas, would be distributed to the country’s 52 districts this week.
Government had slowed monitoring schools as most education directors did not have transport to move around the schools.
This led to indiscipline among teachers and tension between parents and school authorities.
Minister Coltart said the new vehicles would go a long way in improving education standards in the country.
“We have been experiencing prob- lems with monitoring schools due to lack of transport especially in the rural areas.
“This has led to indiscipline in the education sector and even deterioration in pass rates.
“For us to maintain our education standards, officials have to be on the ground and this is a great step towards achieving our goals.
“The vehicles will be distributed accordingly at a function in the capital (Harare) this week,” he said.
Minister Coltart emphasised that monitoring would defuse growing tension in some cases, between parents and school authorities.
His ministry, he said, was concerned with increased conflicts hence the need to tighten monitoring activities.
“Parents have clashed quite a lot with school authorities especially on mismanagement of funds and the issue of incentives.
“I think with consistent monitoring, the situation will be calmed.
“This is a bid to promote discipline within schools and duly improve the country’s pass rate,” he said.
He said despite facing liquidity challenges, his ministry would effectively strive to effectively improve the performance of all Government-run schools and ensure service delivery by the teaching staff is up to standard.
“There is no doubt that Government is broke but we will do everything possible to ensure that everything is done according to standard so that we continue being known for better reasons in the world,” he said.
He reiterated that Government would continue to improve as well as maintain education standards achieved since independence.