Bona’s place at the University of Hong Kong, which is being bankrolled
by the suffering Zimbabwean people, has caused a public outcry with an
MP in the country calling for her deportation. Zimbabwe’s National
Students Union
(ZINASU) has since echoed the call, explaining in a petition sent to
the Chinese Embassy in Harare that "the state of the education system
is so deplorable that the President has seen it fit to trust the
Chinese for the education of his daughter whilst ordinary students are
failing to get decent education."
The Union has said the return of Bona would help increase pressure on
her father to resuscitate the failed education system that has seen the
country’s literacy rate drop from 86% ten years ago to an estimated 40%
in recent years. The 2008 academic year saw school and university
attendance drop to an all time low of less than 30%, and it is widely
believed that this figure will drop even lower this year.
School and university doors reopened on Tuesday after a two week forced
postponement by government, but aside from a handful of private
institutions, the majority of students were sent home. The ongoing
teachers strike over the payment of foreign currency wages means almost
no teachers have returned to work, and there are doubts the academic
year will get properly under way at all. At the same time, many parents
have not sent their children back to class because they have been
unable to pay the fees, which in many cases are being charged in forex.
SW Radio Africa’s Bulawayo correspondent Lionel Saungweme explained on
Wednesday that many university students have refused to pay their
‘exorbitant’ forex-fees, until the government "sets a realistic and
flexible fee structure for the country’s learners." Saungweme explained
that, despite not being given the mandate to do so, the Midlands State
University, as well as the National University of Science and
Technology, have both pegged fees of more than US$800 per semester.
Saungweme said the move is unrealistic because the majority of wage
earners are being paid in the worthless local dollar, and students are
feeling deliberately ostracised.