Zimbabwe: Making schools work

HARARE, 4 May 2009 (IRIN) - The authorities announced a package of measures on 4 May to revive Zimbabwe's beleaguered education system and get teachers and children back into classrooms, as schools are expected to reopen this week.

"Cabinet will shortly decide on tuition fees, which will be substantially reduced," David Coltart, the minister of education, sport, arts and culture, told a press conference.

He said school fees would be reduced and parents would only have to pay admission fees to keep their children in schools while consultations on the fees to be charged took place. The admission fees range from US$5 to US$20.

Teacher unions have said educators would not return to work unless their salaries were improved, so as an inducement to get them back to school he announced that their children would not have to pay school fees.

Coltart said he had met with several donor organisations who had promised to help the government revive the education sector through capitalization. Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, with around 90 percent unemployment and crippling shortages of basic commodities, has made survival a priority.

According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), school attendance rates dropped from 80 percent to 20 percent in 2008. Unaffordable school fees and absentee teachers meant more than 90 percent of Zimbabwe's rural schools, which most children attend, could not reopen at the beginning of the 2009 school year.

At present, school fees will cost the parents of primary school children in affluent low-density suburbs US$150 per child, while those in high-density townships will pay US$20. Civil servants earn about US$100 a month, making education unaffordable for most children.

The parents of high school students in low-density areas will have to fork out up to US$280 per term, while those in high-density areas will have to lay out US$180.

Students in rural secondary schools are expected to pay US$50 per term, but even with provisions to stagger payments, parents throughout the country failed to pay fees.

According to available statistics, more than 20,000 teachers left the profession between 2007 and 2008 in search of greener pastures, mainly in neighbouring southern African countries.

While individual teachers said they would "wait and see", union leaders on 4 May urged their members to return to work. "We are calling on all teachers to report for duty. We are doing this with heavy hearts, but we have faith in the minister," said Sifiso Ndlovu, chief executive of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association.

Raymond Majongwe, secretary-general of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe, told IRIN that donor representatives had assured them they would receive money to improve salaries. "After meeting the donors, we have reason to believe that our case is now in legitimate hands ... we have confidence in them."

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