Chronicle Editor
Simbarashe Murima, Opinion
The current commercial education landscape in the country is unsettling. The paradigm shift of education to a ‘commodity’ in Zimbabwe by private educational institutions is a growing concern at present and the future.
Education value is ostentatiously losing its ‘soul’ to commercialisation and has become another industry to earn higher profits, thus paving the way for more profit-oriented approaches to teaching and learning.
Commercialisation in this context is annotated as a practice by private owners and management of colleges, universities, and primary and secondary schools investing with the aim of making profits by seeing education as a commodity that can be purchased and sold.
However, education value in this setting embraces equality and national cohesion. Every person is entitled to quality education that is current, affordable and accessible without discrimination.
According to Section 75 (2) of the Constitution states that, ‘a person has a right to establish and maintain independent educational institutions with reasonable standards that does not discriminate on any ground prohibited by the Constitution.
With regards to the above, I have examined that some owners and management of these private institutions are subtly contrasting the diktat of the Act. Nevertheless, I do venerate that most of these entrepreneurial schools produce outstanding results but are unapologetically exorbitant, thus tinting them economically bigoted.
It is however, worth noting that the private education sector has made a venerable contribution to education in the country so far. Of course, these contributions should be treated as valuable if they promote egalitarian, unprejudiced and equitable delivery of education in the country.
Education has endured substantial vicissitudes not only in the methodologies and educational content but has protracted its change to the socio-economic realm of the entire society. The private schools, colleges and universities in Zimbabwe now commercially lead education to their own expediency.
In addition, some of these commercial institutions charge weighty tuition fees, add additional charges and hike fees prodigiously every academic year. Although some of these schools emphasise on the quality of education but then again accentuate more on impressive buildings, facilities, stationery and other unnecessary paraphernalia.
In spite of paying such usurious school fees, education ardent parents are forced to buy uniforms from their own school, pay supplementary building levy, desk levy, computer levy, food levy, transport levy, tours, competition and sports activity fees etc.
All these school overheads have led to commodification or exploit of education. Commodification of education is annihilating the originality and creativity of education. Commodification has initiated education to depart from its model objective of ushering learners to the opulence of moral values.
Contrariwise, the commodification infers that education is no longer about academics, the knowledge students’ acquire, but it’s about how much money that can be extracted or syphoned from the parents and guardians.
For example, after paying immense fees for your child, some I.T teachers will demand an extra charge to just install a free Microsoft Windows update on your child’s laptop. Moreover, at some private schools, a Grade One or Two learner is charged an ‘adult’ fee for a three day trip to a local tourism destination in addition to other miscellaneous costs already paid.
The commercialisation of education has an alarming consequence which is so polished and often goes imperceptible. Indubitably, the commercialised education affects oodles of people not just in Zimbabwe, Namibia or South Africa but all over the world.
Knowingly or unknowingly some of these private schools have created and indoctrinated a toxic culture in learners that coerce them to suffocate by putting gargantuan pressure on parents to buy or provide anything the school requests.
For example learners force parents to buy new outfits, request luxurious cars to escort them to school special events, claim payment for regional and international trips, and also to buy unnecessarily expensive gadgets etc. It’s now a ‘Pay money to buy education’ credo.
The commercialisation of education poses a threat to the choices available to the general population and makes education freedom an output of the financial influence of the elite. I predicate that if education is commercialised, it will be the power of money that will regulate who gets quality education and who doesn’t, thus undermining academic principles, sovereignty and equal opportunity to humanity.
Commercialisation is leading many people to opt for money oriented education instead of choosing human oriented. Besides, I concede that commercialisation befell because some parents and guardians especially those in the diaspora are willing to pay for better education facilities for their children.
Education should not be too commercialised in order to ensure equal access to learning opportunities for everyone, regardless of their financial status quo.
So, what needs to be fixed in this issue is the impact this educational commercialisation is having, and will continue to have, on public education.
Thus, there is need for the government’s intervention to help correct these methodical commercial anomalies in education. The injurious repercussions of this untoward education transition will be deleterious to the country’s education system regarding the accessibility of quality and economical education. There should be an exultant marriage between private and public institutions in Zimbabwe.
Simbarashe Murima (PhDc) is writing in his own capacity. He is as an Education, Tourism and Hospitality expert in Namibia and Zimbabwe. Feedback: [email protected]/0781480742/ +264814571709 (WhatsApp)
Bongani Ndlovu