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ZIMBABWE:
Hundreds of thousands may be out of school
IRIN
News
April 29, 2004
http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=40832
BULAWAYO - About 800,000
Zimbabwean orphans and disadvantaged children who depend on state assistance
to pay school fees may be unable to enrol when the new term begins next
week.
Under the Basic Education
Assistance Model (BEAM), the government had allocated Zim $3.8 billion
(about US $753,000) to pay the school fees of orphans and disadvantaged
children, but Lancelot Museka, the Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare
permanent secretary, announced this week that the money had run out after
just one term of the school year.
Zimbabwe's economic
crisis has led to job losses, making it impossible for growing numbers
of parents to pay tuition fees. Unemployment now stands at 80 percent,
and is rising as businesses continue to fold. For those still employed
in the formal sector, low wages in a hyperinflationary environment have
worsened a situation that is often already desperate.
The announcement that
the BEAM had run out of funds came after hard-pressed guardians of BEAM
beneficiaries had made representations to government to expand the programme
to include the purchasing of exercise books.
"We had budgeted
Zim $3.8 billion to pay school fees for HIV/AIDS orphans and disadvantaged
children this year. However, the money has run out because the schools
are constantly hiking fees, leading to an early exhaustion of the funds
and a drastic decline in the number of beneficiaries," Museka explained.
Most schools have
hiked tuition fees to an average of Zim $500,000 (US $913) per term, with
some private institutions demanding as much as Zim $2.5 million (US $4,900),
in defiance of a government directive to seek prior approval for an increase
from the ministry of education. The schools cited high inflation, currently
around 600 percent, and a need to maintain educational standards as reasons
for the increases.
Primary school textbooks
now cost between Zim $50,000 (just under $10) and Zim $100,000 (just under
US $20), while the lowest-priced textbook for secondary school costs Zim
$80,000 (about US $15). Exercise books range from Zim $3,000 (US $0.59)
to Zim $7,000 (US $1.30) each, translating into an average expenditure
of Zim $168,000 (US $33) on exercise books alone for one upper secondary
school pupil.
Minister of Education
Aneas Chigwedere acknowledged that the per capita grants allocated to
schools for the acquisition of textbooks were insufficient, given the
high inflation rate, but alleged that negligence by schools was aggravating
the situation.
"Schools are
given per capita grants every year. Yes, the money may not be enough,
because it is not meant to be enough anyway. The major problem is that
schools do not take care of their textbooks. Most are stolen and re-sold
at black market prices on street corners," said Chigwedere.
The BEAM programme
was set up in 2001 to pay tuition and examination fees for the growing
number of children being forced to drop out of school because their parents
or guardians could not afford to keep them there.
Since 2001, 1.7 million
pupils have benefited from successive BEAM allocations. The total number
of beneficiaries for 2004 was projected at 800,000.
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