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Unlicensed
and outdoors or no school at all in Zimbabwe
IRIN
News
July
22, 2010
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89947
Simbarashe Choga,
65, a retired teacher, is the local butcher in Epworth, some 20km
northeast of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare; he is also the principal
of the primary school he runs out of his shop.
"My teachers
keep their records and other materials at my butchery, which operates
as our head office because, as you can see, there are no buildings
here," Choga told IRIN. "We have a total enrolment of
182 pupils from the first to the seventh grades, and the majority
of them learn outside."
Most of the houses in
Epworth have no running water or electricity and the area is best
known for its high levels of crime. Choga insisted that his institution
had been registered by the local municipal authority, but said most
of the schools offering primary and secondary education were unlicensed,
and at the ministerial level even his school was not accredited.
This means that
pupils at Choga's school have to sit their grade-seven examinations
for entry into high school at other institutions that have been
formally licensed by the education ministry.
Choga, who
employs mostly untrained teachers, complained that they had to make
do with inadequate books and stationery, and urged the government
to register his school, "so that people like myself, and many
others in Epworth and other parts of the country, can make education
accessible to the underprivileged, who are too poor and lack learning
facilities."
Good
marks, for now
The United Nations
Development Programme recently found that Zimbabwe had a literacy
rate of 92 percent, the highest in Africa, but David Coltart, minister
of education, arts, sport and culture, commented: "That hardly
means anything if Zimbabwe's education system remains in the
state it is today. I am not accepting congratulations."
The ailing education
system, once a model for sub-Saharan Africa, has buckled and all
but collapsed under the economic and political crises of the past
decade, when widespread food shortages, hyperinflation, cholera
outbreaks, and an almost year-long strike by teachers in 2008 led
to a dramatic decline in the standard of learning.
It is not uncommon for
10 pupils to share a textbook, and although the government drastically
slashed school fees in 2009, deepening poverty has put even the
reduced cost of attending government schools in some areas beyond
the reach of thousands of children.
"The proliferation
of these unregistered schools is a national crisis, and we are very
worried," Coltart told IRIN. He said unauthorized schools
were multiplying because limited resources meant education officials
could not check on them.
"There are no vehicles
to use to visit districts and inspect the schools, as was the case
when the economy was still sound. I am, however, happy that the
finance minister [Tendai Biti] recently allocated my ministry money
to buy 40 vehicles to use during our tours across the country."
Coltart said
even though private schools played an important role in raising
educational standards, this was not the case where the institutions
were unregistered and were not monitored by officials from his ministry.
The government recently announced that it had closed more than 100
unlicensed private tertiary colleges.
"Students
going into their fourth form have to go elsewhere, as we are also
not registered and cannot conduct Ordinary Level examinations. Fees
are cheap here, and the parents enrol their children with us because
they cannot be absorbed by the few secondary schools in the area,"
said Sophia Sibanda, a teacher at a school near Choga's.
"The most important
thing is that these pupils know how to read and write, and get a
little knowledge about geography and history," she said. "Otherwise
they would get into adulthood without being able to count."
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