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Chigwedere should prove his worth in 2005
Sheuneni Kurasha
January 13, 2005

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/fingaz/2005/January/January13/7519.shtml

When the year 2004 came to an end more than a week ago, one of the stories that received the media’s attention as one of the major highlights of the past year was the sensational achievement by the 21-year-old Kirsty Coventry who scooped three medals including gold at Athens 2004 Olympics in swimming.

The excitement that gripped the whole nation when this young woman achieved the rare feat was testimony of the unifying force that sport is on the one hand and how personal achievement can easily be national achievement.

Was it not so wonderful to hear the national anthem —Simudzai mureza weZimbabwe being played thousands and thousands of kilometres away from home?

Indeed many were inspired to excel in their professions and raise high the flag of our nation. It was befitting for the President to honour Kirsty for the stalling achievement in the manner he did — a diplomatic passport and $US50 000 prize money.

Indeed such achievements need to be recognised in the best way possible.

The sad story however, is that, it is likely to take many years before we realise such achievements by local sportspersons, particularly in the so-called elite sports — swimming, hockey and basketball, among others.

In fact, the dark cloud hovering over the development of sports in schools is also evident in many other areas that fall under the Education, Sports and Culture Ministry.

Since taking over the reins at the ministry, Aeneas Chigwedere has played second fiddle to the problems and challenges that face his ministry and his portfolio and his name alike have become synonymous with under-performance.

The new year should be another opportunity for the minister to come up with a complete turnaround strategy for the various institutions within his ministry and maintain the high standard that have become identical with Zimbabwean education — the Zimbabwe Schools’ Examination Council (Zimsec), acute shortage of textbooks, poor remuneration for teachers, problems bedeviling the Sports and Recreation Commission and its problem child, Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) and the pending idea of compulsory pre-school, among others.

Recently a Harare schools was reportedly in need of about $62 million to renovate its disused swimming pool. The school represents many other schools that are struggling to raise funds to buy and maintain sports equipment due to the current economic problems facing the nation.

There is therefore need for the Education Ministry to come up with a strategy on how to revive sports in schools, especially those in the high-density and rural areas which continue to lag behind due to lack of adequate resources. For the better part of 2004 Zimsec was in the news, all for wrong reason.

Initially it was its failure to release June exams’ results in time for the November exams and secondly for the leakages of exams. To make matters worse authorities at the council went out of their way to distance themselves from the leak by telling us how countries like UK also experience the same problem as if two wrongs make a right. In the other instance they shifted the blame on the printers whom they said they did not have much control over despite having granted them the contract in the first place.

We hope it is Minister Chigwedere’s resolution this year to teach officials at Zimsec to be professional and responsible enough to accept the blame when it lies with them. When such regrettable incidents happen they simply need to apologize and work towards rectifying and improving the situation in the future. He should also restore the fading public confidence in this institution.

With a net salary of less than $700 000, Zimbabwean teachers are amongst the worst paid in the world despite the splendid work they have been doing over the years to keep our education amongst the most highly rated on the continent. In most rural schools teachers have virtually become textbooks and students rely solely on them for information as a class of forty share one textbook. The average textbook – pupil ratio has gone down from 1:5 to about 1:10 in most urban schools. With a textbook costing between $150 000 and $400 000, books have become very expensive and most schools cannot afford them. Teachers therefore deserve better treatment.

The bickering at Zifa has been going on for sometime and neither the Sports and Recreation Commission nor the Minister seems to have an answer to these problems. Now the boardroom squabbles and coups have spread to cricket and in all cases the number one victim is sport. In 2005 Minister Chigwedere needs to act decisively on the problems and individuals affecting the smooth running of sport in the country or we may as well forget South Africa 2010 World Cup and risk losing our coveted Test status in cricket.

2005 should be a year of action and indeed decisive action by Minister Chigwedere, acting on priorities first. It is not time to be engrossed in petty issues like the issue of national dress at the time when Zimsec is not fulfilling its mandate of administering exams to the satisfaction of the public – please differentiate between the important and urgent on one hand and the important and not urgent on the other.

This year should seen students registering for exams on time and when they finally sit for them they should be released on time.

We have always wondered if Minister Chigwedere is not committed to his duties judging by the number of times he is in the news for wrong reasons, or it’s a question of his best not being good enough. 2005 presents the public with another opportunity to judge for themselves.

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