Form One Places: Let more State schools join elite league

many parents to sacrifice heavily to get the best possible education for their children.
There is, in fact, no total shortage of Form One places. Every child who completes Grade Seven will, eventually, be able to find a place.
The problem for many parents is where that place will be.
Rightly or wrongly, most urban State high schools are seen as a last resort by the parents who are willing to pay reasonable sums in fees or levies. And it must be admitted that many of these schools are run-down and grossly underfunded.
That, in turn, arises from the pressure exerted by those parents who do not wish to pay useful sums in fees and levies and either vote against necessary levies at school meetings or simply do not pay what the majority at the school agree on.
So parents seeking the best they can afford, and for many parents this might mean that they are sinking more than half their take-home pay in their children’s education, look outside the State system: the trust schools and the mission schools.
There is a group of State schools who also attract far more applicants than they have places for. Some of these are the older boarding schools, such as Goromonzi, others are urban schools that charge levies far higher than average, such as Prince Edward.
It is not the fact that the average urban school is a State school that makes it undesirable for the keener parent; it is the fact that the standards it sets are too low for these parents.
This intense competition for places at some schools makes these keener parents angry. And some tend to vent their anger at the schools for making that competition so intense.
The fees charged for the entrance exam, usually around US$20 at mission schools and many trust schools, is not a fundraising exercise though.
That is the sort of sum the teachers at these schools demand to do a proper job in their time off of assessing the child who wrote the exam.
Parents want a proper job of assessment done and that is what it costs.
We sympathise with the schools. If they tried to limit the numbers who are allowed to write the exams they will be accused of favouritism or worse. If they allow all who apply to write they are accused of taking parents for a ride.
In the end we are willing to bet that parents of those children who do get places do not complain.
But the huge and unsatisfied demand for places at the higher fee schools – trust, mission and top-of-the-line State schools – shows that there are tens of thousands of parents who are willing to pay a lot more than most urban high schools demand.
They realise that while higher fees are not the sole reason for higher standards, education is one of those areas where throwing money at a problem does produce many solutions.
The Education Ministry has been slow to react. There have been some changes.
We note that in central Harare, where two boys high schools and two girls high schools share the same large block of land the ministry has allowed parents at two of these schools to push up levies and produce the flagships of the State system.
Those parents who seek just average levies use the other two schools.
But the numbers willing to pay more to get more seem to be growing.
We believe that the ministry can allow more of its State schools to join the flagship battalion.
In many areas there are schools which are fairly close together; surely one can be allowed to attract more of the parents prepared to pay more.
We saw this in the 1980s and 1990s even in the high-density suburbs. Mbare, for example, has three State high schools. One had higher levies and so offered much better facilities than the other two. Parents could choose.
Of course there are those who want the better facilities at the lower levy, but that is impossible.
The trend was then to force the parents willing to pay more to pay the lower levies that the average parent desired and so the schools slumped a bit.
We think that those willing to pay for quality should be allowed to do so, even if this does produce more glaring differences between State schools.
But as more schools move up in the rankings, then more parents might be prepared to forgo a few beers each week and start paying more in fees. They will see the difference.
It is as unfair to force a parent willing to make sacrifices to pay less as it is to force a parent who cares less to pay more.
We probably cannot, at this time, have all State schools upgrading themselves at the same pace.
But surely we can allow those parents willing to pay for quality, and the thousands seeking places for a handful of places at non-Government schools shows that there are a lot of these, to fulfil their desires.
It is clear that the non-Government systems cannot cope with the demand. So why not let more State schools enter the ranks of those who are already among the leaders.