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Zimbabwean pupils bring own chairs to school
ZimOnline
January 19, 2006

http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=11470

HARARE - Several of Zimbabwe's cash-strapped public schools are now requesting pupils to bring along chairs and desks from home or they will have to sit on the floor, ZimOnline has established.

In yet another example of how Zimbabwe's state education sector has dramatically collapsed under the weight of the country's six-year economic crisis, school authorities ask parents of newly-enrolled pupils to "donate" a chair for their child because the school cannot provide one.

Alternatively parents are asked to pay a "donation" to the school which then uses the money to buy a chair for their child.

School authorities cannot increase fees to include the cost of chairs and desks or openly demand parents to pay extra cash for the purchase of furniture after the government imposed a cap on fee and levy hikes. Schools can only receive extra cash from parents if it is donated.

For example, in a circular to parents the headmaster of Blackstone Primary School in Harare, a Mr A T Muzariri, asks parents to come to the school to donate chairs for their children.

"I once again, appeal to all parents to come to the school immediately and pay for their child's chair. Your donation of a chair to the school is greatly appreciated," the circular reads in part.

According to the circular, the price for an infant chair suitable for Grades 1-3 pupils costs $1 684 284 while a standard chair for Grades 4-7 age groups costs $2 205 690.

Blackstone, located in Harare's well-to-do Avenues area, was once a whites-only school before independence in 1980 and is regarded as one of the top primary schools in the capital.

But it has since lost all the shine after years of under-funding and like all government schools lacks everything from textbooks to toilet paper for pupils.

Parents with children at other government schools also confirmed they were being asked to buy furniture, textbooks and even chalk for teachers.

"Basically, on top of paying school fees we still have to donate everything the school needs for the term and you wonder what they use the fees for if we still have to donate money for chalk," said a parent, as he shopped around for textbooks for his daughter doing her second year of high school education at Mufakose high school in the capital.

Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere however defended school authorities who ask parents to "donate" chairs and other equipment, saying there was nothing wrong with parents assisting schools at a time the government was unable to do so because it faced many challenges.

"The schools belong to the parents. They are duty bound to help their respective schools. I don't see anything wrong," said Chigwedere.

But the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, one of two teachers' representative bodies in the country, said while parents' help was welcome, the fact that school authorities were requiring parents to donate chairs or their children would sit on the floor was testimony of the state of disrepair at most public schools.

"It simply goes to show the extent of the chaos in the education sector," said Majongwe whose organisation has threatened to call a strike by teachers in coming weeks for more pay.

Zimbabwean teachers on average take home between $2.5 and $5 million, when according to the government's Central Statistical Office, an average family of five people requires about $17 million for basic goods and services per month.

The collapse of Zimbabwe's public education sector - which together with the health sector was an example of Mugabe's achievements since independence in 1980 - mirrors the state of near-total-collapse of the entire economy after six years of a recession described by the World Bank as unseen in a country not at war.

The economic crisis has spawned acute shortages of food, fuel, electricity, essential medical drugs and just about every basic survival commodity because there is no hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. - ZimOnline

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