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End impunity: the right to education
Justice for Children Trust
June 06, 2013

Education is one of the fundamental human rights recognised in international human rights instruments to which Zimbabwe is a state party. These human rights instruments include the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. They all provide for the right of everyone to education and prescribe that to achieve that right primary education shall be compulsory and available for free to all. The state is mandated to “take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates”. They emphasise the importance of education in the development and growth of any child; it lays the foundation for the future of the child. Education ensures that a country has well-informed citizens who will be able to make sound decisions for the good of their country and themselves as individuals. They anchor the profound words of Nelson Mandela that “Education is the most powerful weapon with which we can change the world”. These international human rights provisions had however remained meaningless in Zimbabwe as the government abdicated from responsibility.

The old Constitution was silent on the right to education. The Education Act however provided that every child in Zimbabwe shall have the right to school education and for compulsory primary education for every child. The challenge however was that the responsibility to ensure that every child access education was placed on parents. In a country ravaged by HIV and AIDS, there are many children who are orphans and due to the continuing economic crisis in Zimbabwe many unemployed parents can hardly afford to send their children to school. The state had internally absolved itself of the responsibility to provide basic education to the children. The Minister of Education had even promulgated Statutory Instrument 379 of 1998 providing for the establishment of School Development Associations in government schools which, inter alia, determines the collection of levies from parents for the development of schools while retaining the prerogative to prescribe the tuition fees payable for government schools. Schools have abused these provisions to charge exorbitant levies and even incentives for teachers disguised as such to the exclusion of many children. While the Minister of Education was busy issuing out statements that children should not be send home for failing to pay fees, schools were sending them for failing to pay levies and have uniforms and other school requirements. Where children were not send home for failing to pay incentives, some teachers would exclude them in normal lessons disguised as extra lessons. Even the Government (UNICEF and Ministry of Labour and Social Services A Situational Analysis on the Status of Women and Children’s Rights in Zimbabwe 2005- 2010) acknowledged the challenges posed by its policies. These challenges resulted in decreased enrolment and dropouts. The net enrolment ratio declined from 98.5% in 2002 to 91% in 2009 while about 30% of children were unable to complete their primary education and more than 190,000 secondary school age children were out of school per annum.

Justice For Children mobilised children to participate in the constitution making process and welcomed the New Constitution with the hope that it will address these challenges and guarantee the fundamental right to education for every child in Zimbabwe. Indeed the New Constitution enshrined this right. Section 81 (1) (f) provides that every child, that is to say every boy and girl under the age of eighteen years, has the right to education. Section 75 (a) also provides that every citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe has a right to a basic State-funded education, including adult basic education. These provisions are among those which become operational upon the signing of the New Constitution by the President of Zimbabwe. It is now settled that primary education should be provided by the State free of charge for every child who is a citizen and permanent resident of Zimbabwe. The right to education, particularly for children, unlike other socio-economic rights in the New Constitution is not subject to available resources hence the Government does not have the luxury of postponing its realisation. It must act now. To this end, the Minister of Education should urgently act to align the Education Act and the regulations made in terms thereof with the New Constitution before resources are unnecessarily spend in approaching the Constitutional Court, which will gladly execute its mandate of protecting citizen’s rights from violations.

While the process of aligning the Education Act to the New Constitution may take time, it is critical that the Minister of Education urgently issue policy directives to the government schools which are continuing to send children home for failure to pay fees, levies and incentives. Such schools include St Joseph Primary School, Zamba Primary School and Dangare Primary School, in Manicaland Province which on the 3rd of June 2013 send children home for failure to pay the levies. Some of the schools have even vowed to continue sending the children home until the fees, levies and incentives are paid. This is the state of impunity Zimbabweans want to end with the advent of the New Constitution. This should start with:

• The Government of Zimbabwe taking more seriously its human rights obligation of ensuring that primary education is free and compulsory for every child as provided in the New Constitution by amending the Education Act accordingly.
• The Government of Zimbabwe prioritising the education sector in order to make education a real right for all children by especially providing adequate budgetary allocations and teaching and learning materials. It must ensure that the budget to education is 20% or 6% of its Gross Domestic Product as recommended by Dakar Declaration for Education.
• The Minister of Education taking urgent corrective measures on government schools which continue to violate the children’s constitutional right to basic state funded education to avoid unnecessary constitutional applications to the Constitutional Court.
• Children and parents being made aware of the children’s rights, including the right to education, enshrined in the New Constitution so that they demand accountability where there are violations.

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