Dollarisation threatens to derail education

Teachers and lecturers have been vowing not to resume work unless they are paid in foreign currency running into thousands of United States dollars, which the government does not have. Teachers and lecturers are demanding $US2,318 per month for the least paid.
There are also fears that school authorities and the National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC) might be headed for a bruising confrontation over the charging of school fees in foreign currency, which educationists argue is the only solution that can save the sector from total collapse.
The NIPC is yet to approve applications by schools and tertiary institutions requesting the green light to charge levies in foreign currency preferably the US dollar, the South African rand or in fuel coupons.
While schools were meant to re-open on January 13, the government this week postponed the date to January 27 citing unfinished business in marking Grade 7, ‘O’ and ‘A’ level examinations.
This newspaper however, has it on good authority that some schools had started enrolling schoolchildren on the strength of their mid last year results, a situation that could affect the standard of education.
It also now seems unlikely that colleges and universities will open on January 19, as the economy takes another knock.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) estimates that Zimbabwe requires US$80 million over the next 12 months mainly to lure back to class the thousands of teachers who have either stayed home or fled the country seeking greener pastures, mostly in South Africa where an estimated 94,000 teachers are required.
“Our concern is that no adequate measures have been taken by the relevant education ministry to make sure the conditions are right for children to return to school.
“The challenge we face as Unicef is that most of the donations received so far have been for the cholera outbreak and not for education.
“Schools are however, the best source for protection and awareness campaigns,” said Unicef country representative, Roland Monasch.
At the end of last year it was estimated that less than 20 percent of the country’s schoolchildren completed their third term after the bulk of schools closed three weeks ahead of time due to a critical staff and food shortage.
Unicef said the attendance rate last year dropped from 85 percent in 2007 to 20 percent with 70 percent learning time being lost as a result of teacher boycotts, which kicked off in March.
The teachers were complaining over poor remuneration and lack of government sincerity to their plight.
The country’s two biggest teacher organisations, the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta) and the militant Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), have declared they would not resume work until the thorny issue of remuneration has been thrashed out.
Zimta secretary general, Richard Gundane, this week said the recent dollarisation of the economy reinforced his organisation’s position  that teachers should be paid in foreign currency adding that the situation on the ground had incapacitated educators.
“This is a big shocker,” Gundane said. “Clearly the economy has been dollarised. Talk about juice cards, tomatoes even hospitals are now demanding foreign currency. The only way out of this mess is if the government remunerates in either United States dollars or South African rand. We will not be able to go back to work because we have become extremely incapacitated.”
Reacting to reports that some private schools, which make up about 40 percent of the education institutions in Zimbabwe were already charging in foreign currency, Gundane said: “We understand that those schools charging fees in foreign currency have contingency measures in place including the consent of the parents.
“But this has caused a lot of confusion. While learning will be in progress in private schools, the bulk of schoolchildren will be languishing at home. The government needs to take up an obligatory role and come up with a uniform fee payable in foreign currency.”
Ptuz’s secretary general Raymond Majongwe said he was surprised that the recent ZANU-PF’s national people’s conference failed to discuss in detail the state of the education sector.
“All we heard was (President) Mugabe saying schools must open at all costs and that was that. We are worried because someone somewhere is not being honest. Those in positions of authority are not prepared to discuss this issue with teachers. We need a stakeholders meeting to see how we can salvage this situation.
“Teachers have made it clear to me that they are not going back to work. There is nothing to go back for. It has come to a point where our lives take precedent over those of schoolchildren.”