Education in dilapidation

The concrete precast wall and ceiling inside the school’s buildings are crumbling, while some of the toilets are in bad state. Many doors have no locks and the broken windowpanes sum up the deteriorating state of the school.
Ellis Robins, in the low-density suburb of Mabelreign, once an elite institution, is now a pale shadow of its former glory.
The state of affairs at this government-owned school is a microcosm of the situation at most of the country’s State-run educational institutions as Zimbabwe’s education system continues to crumble.
Analysts this week said the government needs a paradigm shift to save the educational sector from further demise in the face of myriad of challenges the country is grappling with, underlined by poor remuneration for teachers.
Harare lawyer Terence Hussein said the government must realise that it can no longer afford to run schools as it used to and should hand them over to communities, especially those in low-density areas.
“They have been in this revolutionary mindset that we are going to provide education to the people without counting the costs,” said Hussein. “What is needed is a paradigm shift. Those areas (communities surrounding the schools) must not only be encouraged, but required to take charge of educational facilities, including paying teachers’ salaries.”
Hussein added that the current wholesale funding of education by government results in two undesirable things: heavy taxation and dependence on donor funding.
“I say undesirable because heavy taxation makes Zimbabwe an unattractive investment destination while reliance on donor funds exposes the country to the whims of the donors,” he said.
As the country’s education woes continue to fester like a gapping wound, key players in the sector are pinning their hopes on external international assistance to survive the storm.
In an interview with The Financial Gazette this week, the president of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association, Tendai Chikowore, said the association held meetings with donors and there were encouraging signs that prompted the association to call-off a planned strike.
“We met donors together with the Ministry (of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture) and it was positive. Based on that, we realised that it is better for teachers to go back to work,” said Chikowore.
Chikowore said it was encouraging that such organisations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund had promised to work on a country appeal programme to rescue the nation’s education sector from the throes of collapse.
Although Education Minister David Coltart this week announced a drastically reduced provisional fees structure, Chikowore said there is need for further discussion since some of the provisions apply only to government-run schools.
Fees at primary schools in high-density and low-density suburbs have been pegged at US$5 and US$10 respectively while children attending high-density and low-density secondary schools will respectively pay US$10 and US$20 with teachers’ children being exempted from paying the new fees.
Political scientist John Makumbe, however, warned that the government must have a serious re-think on its priorities because as long as the outstanding issues arising from the Global Political Agreement (GPA) remain unresolved, donors will remain on the fence.
The GPA was signed last September between President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s larger faction of the Movement for Democratic Change and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara’s MDC-M.
“The solution is for (President) Mugabe to resolve the outstanding issues. Right away, donor agencies will say there is meaningful progress and assist. Without that no one will ever come to our aid,” Makumbe said.
Despite the temporary understanding between the teachers and government to avert a looming strike, other analysts said for the education sector to fully recover, what needs to be done goes beyond the issue of salaries, citing other working conditions and the need for adequate learning materials.
This week Amnesty International said some teachers it interviewed had expressed fears that brutalities meted on them in the lead-up to last year’s polls still traumatise them and believe the atrocities would recur in future elections.
It added that in order to achieve stability in the education sector, the aggrieved teachers should receive compensation.
“Those found to be responsible should be brought to justice and victims should receive redress. Such measures would be a first step to ensuring the safety of the teachers and improving the environment in which they are working,” the rights group said.
Takavafira Zhou, the president of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, said the poor working environment and the uncertainty in the education sector is illustrated by the fact that during the past eight years, 75 000 teachers left the country but only 500 have returned since the formation of the inclusive government.
He also blamed the slow rate of return of teachers to bureaucracy such as the requirement that those returning must be approved by the permanent secretary, Steven Mahere.
Blessing Vava the spokesperson of the Zimbabwe National Students Union said even though a strike has been averted, much more needs to be done besides the issue of salaries.
“There is need to improve the curriculum, laboratories and infrastructure. The infrastructure is dilapidated and there are no books,” said Vava.