Mat North accounts for 14pc of school dropouts

Chronicle Reporter
MATABELELAND North province has the highest number of children that are not going to school in the country as the province accounts for 14 percent of all the children in the country that are not attending school.According to the 2013 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVac) report, many of the children are not attending school because of financial constraints, illness, pregnancy, disability, long distances travelled and laziness.

The report says 14,4 percent of the children that are not going to school are in Matabeleland North while Matabeleland South Province accounts for 13 percent. Mashonaland West Province has the lowest percentage of children that are not going to school.

About 55 percent of the children that are not attending schools cannot afford the fees and levies while six percent are just not interested in going to school. Four percent of those not attending school are either ill, pregnant or living with disabilities.

About three percent of the children are not in school because they are working for food, helping with household chores or failing to walk long distances to their nearest schools.

The report also shows a national school attendance by gender with 12 percent boys and 11 percent girls of school going age not going to school.

The Minister of State for Matabeleland North, Cain Mathema expressed concern over the development, saying the political leadership and officials from the education ministry should work together and make sure that every child goes to school.

“The education ministry is faced with a lot of challenges and it is our mandate as leaders in the province to make sure that our schools are favourable for both the school children and the teachers.

“The schools must be of today’s standards and all the necessary resources must be available so that we have all children attending school to achieve favourable results.

“Villagers must also be involved in commercial farming so that they raise money for school fees,” said Minister Mathema.
The Matabeleland North education director Mrs Boithatelo Mnguni said eight schools in the province had started implementing a back to school programme while 48 more were laying the ground to start the project.

She said the initiative runs alongside the Performance Lag Address Programme (PLAP), which was started last year to address learning anomalies and eradicate the zero percent pass rate that was being recorded by some schools.