Back to Index

ZINASU Monthly Briefing Paper: April 2009
Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU)
May 18, 2009

Download this document
- Word 97  version (52KB)
- Acrobat PDF version (53KB)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

1.0 Introduction

This paper seeks to outline the state of the education sector in Zimbabwe in the month of April. There is still no significant development in the education sector since the formation of the inclusive government. Many tertiary institutions closed for the Easter vacation, after a long term characterised by serious financial problems. It is now an undisputable fact that higher education in Zimbabwe is no longer a right of every citizen rich or poor but a preserve for the elite. Affordability is a key element of college opportunity; ZINASU has always been committed to the idea that talent and motivation rather than financial resources should govern higher education accessibility. Government slashed the fees in March, although the move was welcome, students called for a further reduction because the fees were still beyond the reach of the majority. An assessment made by the Bindura University of Science Education showed that only 392 students out of a population of 1838 students managed to pay the revised fees in full.

There is a transitional government in Zimbabwe, but the benefits of political stability have not yet been felt in the socio-economic field, mainly because the economy is in dire need of massive financial injection to begin the road to recovery. The harsh reality that students and Zimbabweans at large have to accept is that the inclusive government has not yet managed to mobilise the resources needed to resuscitate / or stimulate the economy.

The problems that have rocked institutions in April all emanate from the issue of affordability of education. Applicants for the cadetship scheme continue to hit a brick wall, in their bid to secure funding to continue their studies. Prospective cadets at Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) were informed that they had to pay tuition fees and will be reimbursed once funding had come from the Government. At National University of Science and Technology (NUST), students who failed to pay tuition fees were barred from writing examinations. The biggest and oldest institution of higher education in Zimbabwe, which has a population of around 12000 students, is still closed mainly due to financial constraints, further depriving the right to education for the poor who are the majority of students at University of Zimbabwe.

Suspensions and arrests of students' activists and leaders that characterised the month of April also emanated from the issue of economic accessibility of education. Students were demonstrating against de-registration and barring of students who had failed to pay from writing examinations, leading to their arrests and suspensions from college.

Download the full document

Visit the ZINASU fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP