Free Education For All in Zimbabwe
Mugabe’s Primary Schools Expansion Policy was a Disaster
Sep 15, 2009
After independence in 1980, then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe 's government declared education a basic human right and made primary schooling compulsory. The number of secondary schools was increased mainly by allowing villagers to establish new ones in rural areas. However, apart from overseeing an adult literacy rate rise from 70% in the mid-eighties to over 95% by 2006, this massive expansion in education had no lasting benefit.
Compulsory Primary Schooling
Mugabe was not the first to declare primary education compulsory in Zimbabwe. In heavily colonised areas of Mashonaland, the Catholic Church had early on coerced Shona villagers to send their children to school or face various penalties, including expulsion from ‘mission villages.’ In 1906 they declared primary education compulsory at Chishawasha.
However, other regions had been neglected by both the church and colonial government education-wise. Matabeleland, Midlands and Masvingo provinces and almost all commercial farms lagged far behind Mashonaland and to some extend Manicaland. In the former three provinces tribal attitudes often colluded with colonial policy to deny youngsters education. Government had an opportunity to address unequal access to education had a mandatory primary education policy been implemented judiciously.
Lack of Investment
The government did not support its policy objectives with capital investment, especially in the rural areas where it was needed most.
However, the government’s attitude and pronouncements on education encouraged teenagers and young adult drop outs to re-enroll into primary school and start at any grade they felt comfortable with to enable them to write the Grade Seven examination and proceed to secondary school.
The pressure for primary school places intensified. Due to government policy no one was turned away. In 1980 there were less than 90 000 children in primary school in the country. By 1989 the number was over 2 million.
Classroom shortages led to lessons under the sun, overcrowded classrooms or other unconventional solutions.
Villagers built schools from scratch. They moulded bricks and contributed money to buy construction equipment and pay builders.
Textbooks, stationery and education equipment was in short supply or non-existent.
President Mugabe is falsely credited with making education free in Zimbabwe. Parents in rural areas paid in kind for their children to attend school. Pupils often without most basics.
The government directed commercial farmers to provide education facilities for their workers' children. Rudimentary structures were erected. A teacher was employed to deliver lessons. It was not much but still better than before independence when there were no schools.
Teacher Shortage
The greatest challenge was primary teacher shortage due to the increased number of primary schools and pupils and the migration of trained and experienced primary school teachers into new secondary schools set up in the rural areas.
The government recruited massively. Unemployed peasants with a Standard Six, Form Two or Four heeded the government’s call. Drivers, tailors, carpenters and other semi-skilled workers abandoned their posts to become teachers because teaching was considered a secure and prestigious occupation. Retired teachers re-entered the classroom. Former guerrillas joined the profession.
These temporary teachers were not equipped to teach anyone let alone primary school children. Many worked alone in remote areas without supervision or inspection. Some were not paid wages for years.
Considering that the government’s contribution to education was mainly teachers' wages which at one time amounted to 95% of the education budget, it used cheap or even free labour.
Mugabe Undermined his Education Policy
The most disadvantaged regions of the country needed years of investment in infrastructure and personnel training but received most of the untrained teachers.
The same areas also suffered serious and even tragic setbacks as a direct result of government action.
From 1982 government unleashed Gukurahundi in Midlands and Matabeleland North provinces. Thousands died and schooling was disrupted.
Manicaland, the border province with Mozambique, had many schools closed due to the war of liberation. Further disturbances occurred during the Renamo insurgency in Mozambique. Following the end of conflict there was no special consideration for the effects of the war in the province.
In Masvingo, while the school building frenzy was going on, villagers were resettled into barren wastelands that had been government farms. There was no infrastructure including schools.
From 1998 President Mugabe actively encouraged commercial farm invasions. Farm workers were uprooted and lost their livelihoods. Their children left their schools and faced an uncertain future.
Thus Mugabe’s actions severely undermined his avowed aim to bring education to all Zimbabweans. He did not deal with the wide discrepancies in access to quality education but worsened them.
Missionary Education
A tiny fraction of Zimbabweans benefitted from the efforts of missionaries led by the Catholic Church who offered high quality education and skills to African pupils and students, but only if their parents could afford to pay high fees. Missionary efforts masked the disastrous consequences of Mugabe’s policies.
Sources:
sacmeg.org
pubmed.gov
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