Treasury fails cadet-ship programme

Higher and Tertiary Education Acting Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo has said.

Addressing a press conference yesterday, Minister Chombo said higher and tertiary education institutions deserved support because they were the beacons of any country’s education system.

He was responding to concerns over the failure by Finance Minister Tendai Biti to release funding for the 54 735 students on the cadetship programme. Only US$750 000 out of the required US$64 million has been released.

Related Stories…

“This country’s economic recovery should be driven by highly skilled workers produced by higher and tertiary institutions,” he said.

“If we as a country, fail to invest in higher and tertiary institutions, which produce the key drivers of economic recovery, we will have failed the nation.”

Minister Chombo said Treasury’s failure to release the funds had negatively affected service delivery and product quality.

“Operations at these institutions have almost ground to a halt, to date, no meaningful money has been released to support the day-to-day running costs. Most of these institutions have choked up to very worrying levels of debt to their respective suppliers, especially for water, electricity, internet and food for students,” he said.

He said last year only 10 000 students accessed the cadetship funding while 40 000 others who had applied failed to get assistance.

He paid tribute to parents who continued to meet the costs of their children’s education. Minister Chombo also announced the appointment of a 12-member team to steer the establishment of a polytechnic in Mashonaland West province.

Chinhoyi University vice chancellor Professor David Simbi heads the foundation and is deputised by Eng Quinton Kanhukamwe, Professor Eddie Mwenje and Eng Cletus Nyachowe.

Other members of the foundation are Mr Sylvester Mashayamombe, Mr Michael Mahachi, Mr Washington Chandiwana, Professor Rosemary Moyana, Mr Christopher Shumba, Mrs N Ndemera and Dr Augustine Tirivangana.

Minister Chombo said the foundation was supposed to find an appropriate place to build the institution which would have two main programmes — teacher education and engineering and technology.

He said the foundation would also fund raise for the development of the institution. The polytechnic which is supposed to enroll its first students by year end replaces the old Chinhoyi Polytechnic whose buildings were taken over by the Chinhoyi University of Technology.