adminExperienced teachers and lecturers, left with their degrees and years of valuable experience citing poor working conditions. The Government has been struggling to fund the sector, resulting in a critical lack of learning and teaching materials such as books, furniture, and so on.
Because of the poor performance of the economy, many parents struggle to pay school and college fees for their children, a situation that has seen many failing to get a decent education. These challenges and others have blighted the entire education sector — from primary to tertiary level.
But since the inclusive Government assumed office three years ago, it has been working to reverse the decline of the critical sector.
“School fees are too high in most schools as the majority of Zimbabweans are still living under the poverty datum line. The poor have to suffer to get an education and in most cases drop out of school, and teachers end up striking or leaving the profession,” said Mr George Dube, a parent.
The Government is struggling to pay civil servants salaries that meet their standards. That has seen guardians and parents helping out by paying teachers and lecturers incentives.
“We still pay teachers incentives because it’s a way of helping them fend for their families and be able to teach our children, but then what happens to the poor child, he or she will not learn for that period,” he said.
Mr Dan Moyo, the provincial education director (PED) for Bulawayo, said parents are paying teachers incentives in a bid to boost their morale so as to upgrade standards.
Children are failing go to school in rural areas because most of them have to travel long distances to the nearest school. Some children travel more than 15km to reach school.
To some, education in Zimbabwe is slowly becoming a preserve for the rich as many schools are charging large sums of money as fees and levies. Yet, education should be provided to all citizens without looking at gender, ethnicity and whether one is rich or poor.
Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rate of more than 90 percent in Africa. This record was attained before the 2000-2008 economic crisis, which means that the impact of the challenges do not reflect in the literacy rate.
Because of lack of trained and experienced teachers, the Government continues to recruit a great number of temporary teachers. This presents its own challenges as pupils being taught by inexperienced teachers don’t tend to do well as anticipated.
Tertiary education is also facing challenges. As the number of students in local state universities is rapidly increasing, students are failing to have the lecturer-student relationship because of shortage of lecturers.
“We are denied a lecturer-student relationship because we are too many in our classes and the lecturer can spend the whole semester not knowing you or even talking to you only to be surprised when he sees you in the exam room,” said Ruth Nleya, a student at a local university.
Some local universities and colleges are reportedly enrolling more than 90 students per class.
“Some of the students we learn with have poor grades which range from 0-2 points yet the degree programme requires 10 points and above. Most of these students got the programmes through bribing the authorities,” she said.
The economic challenges have forced some students out of campus after they failed to pay fees. Staffing levels are also not yet at their best.
But as the economy continues to recover, some teachers and lecturers who had left the country are returning home. Many have been re-engaged in the education sector. However, there are reports that some are finding it difficult to re-enter the civil service.
Mr Moyo said the ministry is open for re-admissions.
“Anybody who wants to be back in the system has to reapply as the ministry is still welcoming back these teachers,” he said.
Teachers and other educators feel that the education system is getting much better as evidenced by the school pass rates which have been improving since 2010.
The Grade Seven, O-Level and A-Level pass rate went up last year from 16, 50 percent to 19, 50 percent, 75, 99 percent to 85, 25 percent, and 25 percent
to 28, 9 percent in 2010 respectively.
Reverend Deborah Manyoba, the headmistress of Sizane High School, said the Educational Transition Fund (ETF) has potential to revitalise the sector.
ETF is a donor-driven effort meant to provide schools with textbooks and other learning and teaching materials. It seeks to deliver 13 million textbooks to all 5 44 primary schools.
The objective of the exercise is to ensure that every child in primary school has a full set of core textbooks. These include English, Maths Shona or Ndebele and Environmental Science.
ETF was set up in 2009 in order to improve the quality of education and is managed by Unicef on behalf of the Government.
Mr Phathisa Nyathi, an educationist and historian said:
“The education system has improved because for the first time we have educational cultural centre in schools such as Petra High School which will see many children learning different cultures and the importance of culture,” he said.
The cadetship programme is another Government effort to make tertiary education accessible to the poor. Under this scheme, the Government pays fees to qualifying college and university students who would be bonded after graduating so that they repay the loans. Tens of thousands of students are benefiting from the fund.
Online Reporter