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Monica Cheru Mpambawashe Creative Editor
There was a court report in the papers recently about an illegal artisanal miner who beat up his wife after she opted to use money set aside for school fees on food and new clothes to celebrate the festive season.
One has to feel sorry for children from that union. On one hand they have a mother who gives priority to fripperies at the expense of education.
On the other hand, there is a father who values education, but resorts to violence, thereby exacerbating the problem, instead of finding a solution.
With the father sentenced to community service and unable to earn money, when schools open, these children will be among thousands who risk being turned away from school for non-payment of fees.
Statistics for the 2019 school drop-out rate are not yet available, but estimates place them as high as 25 percent, more than double the declared 12 percent peg from previous years.
These alarming statistic can be directly linked to current economic challenges.
But in addition, there are other social factors that influence learners to drop out of school.
Little value placed on education
Society has examples of school drop-outs who have become wildly successful.
Mark Zuckerberg is perhaps the most famous illustration after he dropped out of college to found Facebook and is now one of the richest and most influential people in the world.
Here at home musician Alick Macheso comes to mind.
The sungura artiste, by his own account, had no interest in formal education and would skip class to work on his music.
He dropped out after a couple of years in primary school and never returned.
But we need to put such stories into perspective and point out that people like Macheso and Zuckerberg are the very small exception, rather than the rule.
There are also those who point out to the unemployment rate in the country with too many unemployed graduates, so people have to turn to entrepreneurship.
There is also the world trend of technology to replace human beings in many jobs.
These people argue that investing in education is now an unnecessary expense as there is no longer an assured reward at the end.
That may be true and one needs to evaluate the cost of tertiary qualification versus its value on the job market.
But basic education is crucial for basic literacy and as the base to build up a marketable skills set in whatever chosen field, even entrepreneurship.
As society, we need to value basic education and play our part as individuals and institutions in ensuring that every child stays in school up to O’ Level.
Donor dependency syndrome
Zimbabweans, like most other Africans, need to be weaned off donor dependence.
In other societies, it is embarrassing to live off charity and most people will only do that as a last resort and try to get out of a life of handouts at the earliest opportunity.
But in this country, we have able-bodied people scrambling to be listed as charity cases. This affects payment of school fees in some communities.
Being registered to benefit under the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) and other donor-sponsored programmes is a cause for envy.
A councillor from a rural community in Mashonaland West Province says the pressure on BEAM is high because everyone wants their child registered without considering their capacity to work.
“It is sad that we have young people, both parents with no physical or mental impediments, but who just cannot be bothered to work for their offspring,” said the councillor.
“Yes, we know that there are no jobs for graduates. But this is a young man or woman who does not even have an O’ Level certificate, just spending the day lounging around.
“Many others who are in the same circumstances perform menial and manual labour and look after their families.
“We are sending out the wrong message by registering the children of such people on BEAM. People must work for their children. BEAM must be for orphans and children whose parents are somehow incapacitated.”
This same mentality can be seen in the scramble for higher education scholarships.
Opportunities meant for bright, but disadvantaged learners to get college education have been hijacked by the elite.
Children of the elite should not be allowed to benefit from programmes like Presidential Scholarships, which they are likely to have been doing.
We need a strong campaign that teaches people that accessing social welfare without being truly disadvantaged is not morally unacceptable. It is also one of the ills affecting the country.
Meaningful social investment in education
Almost every day, there is some character or another in the limelight for donating consumables like stationery and sanitary wear to some school with some self-important statement about how they feel driven to give back to the community and make life better for the less fortunate.
While this is all great and I am sure temporarily makes learning better for a few kids, the reality is that this does not have long-term impact on the lives of the beneficiaries.
It is important to have programmes in which the community invests something, rather than to just line them up as grateful recipients to be featured in images for social media accolades.
It will be much better if the various public-minded people were to pool resources, come up with various sustainable programmes whereby the school or community can generate its own revenue, improve learning conditions meaningfully and even take care of its disadvantaged members.
For example, if one donor builds fowl runs, another donates the first batch of chickens and yet another gives the feed, the kids can provide labour while acquiring real skills.
There could also be employment creation in the community, thereby effectively fighting poverty.
The seed capital can be reinvested to keep the project going while the profit is used for whatever the School Development Committee decides on.
Other options are water and solar installations, sanitary wear manufacturing plants and other projects.
Each community can come up with its own proposal. All those good citizens wanting to make a difference can help by donating skills such as proposal writing, accounting, business management, and so forth, needed to ensure success.
Mismanagement and theft of funds
I have written previously on this topic showing that there are just too many loopholes in the management of school fees.
This means parents pay fees grudgingly because they feel that they are just writing an open cheque for unscrupulous school administrations.
We need to improve transparency and accountability in fees management systems to encourage payment of fees by all. If parents appreciate the use of the money that they pay, there is higher motivation for compliance.
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