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Zimbabwe high school students meet Permanent Secretary
Students Solidarity Trust
May 25, 2010

Close to 30 High school students mainly from Zengeza 1 High School under the banner of Zimbabwe High Schools Students Union (ZIHISSU) marched on Wednesday May 26, 2010 to Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture (MoESAC) offices where they demanded audience with the Minister or in his absence his permanent Secretary. ZIHISSU was founded on July 2, 2009 in response to an absence of a high school students' platform to collectively engage the government in the face of 2008/2009 disruptions of normal education due to political and economic challenges. The challenges included closure of schools, relentless industrial actions by teachers, exorbitant tuition and examination fees, shortages of text books, shortage of qualified teachers, introduction of compulsory teacher incentives fees and teacher retention fees. The Union's President is Kudakwashe Munemo and the Secretary General is Morris Chengaose both upper six students of Zengeza 1 High Schools studying commercial subjects.

The students led by Munemo and Chengaose were met at the MoESAC by the permanent secretary S. Mahere in the absence of the Minister Senator David Coltart. The students briefed the permanent secretary on the continued challenges despite the coming in of the inclusive government in February 2009. Other challenges that the students presented to Mahere are mismanagement of school funds by Student Development Associations (SDA). ZIHISSU claimed that some of the members of SDA do not have children learning in the schools they represent. Also the majority of the current staff were said to be under-qualified temporary teachers. They denounced corporal punishment in high schools and stated that they spend several learning hours digging and filling pits. Mahere was said to be appreciative of the information that he got from the students. Mahere said some of the problems the students are facing can only be addressed through proper government funding of the whole education sector and advised students to also approach Finance Minister Tendai Biti.

MoESAC has in the past made significant initiatives in addressing challenges in basic and elementary education. A United States multi-million dollar Educational Transitional Fund (ETF) was launched in September 2009 and there have been significant contributions from European Union.

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