Yet what is arguably unique and more concerning than the state of the education system in Zimbabwe, which is replicated in many other countries across Africa and indeed the world, is the large number of children who are absent from school.
Despite a government directive preventing schools from sending home children who fail to pay school fees, the practice continues to happen. Schools receive no government funding and are desperate to raise any form of income to enable them to buy the basic materials they need to function: stationary, exercise books, chalk, desks and blackboards. This means children who have not paid are inevitably turned away and told not to return until they can contribute something, even if it is a single dollar.
Every day thousands of children are shut out of school in Zimbabwe and denied the most basic form of education. The Zimbabwe Benefit Foundation (ZBF) is trying on a small scale to do something to help.
ZBF is a UK registered charity that was established in 2004 with the specific intention of supporting low level, high impact, efficiently implemented initiatives in Zimbabwe. For over six and a half years ZBF has been working across all geographical areas of the country in diverse project fields. Through the organisations combined projects ZBF can be estimated as assisting over 150,000 people in the past two years alone.
Our focus has now turned to education, said Director of ZBF, Lexi Aisbitt.
In 2009 as stability gradually began to return to Zimbabwe it became clear just how serious the years of neglect had been, and that access to education was proving a real challenge for the majority. With an unemployment rate of around 90%, most parents were simply unable to pay for their childrens education. Many children have been orphaned children and single parent households have increased due to the AIDs pandemic.
In response to this ZBF began a school fee appeal. For the past year we have sent over 60 children to school across Zimbabwe. Wanting to do more than just provide money for school fees, ZBF decided to work towards providing 10 primary schools with an agricultural and income generation project in 2011. This will involve specialist farming training for teachers and students, the establishment of nutrition gardens to feed children each day while at school and perhaps most importantly, working with schools to develop their income generating capacity and self-sufficiency.
Towards the end of 2010 an exciting partnership between ZBF and the True Vision Foundation/Zimbabwes Forgotten Children developed. Together we have been working to raise funds to pay the fees of all the children in these 10 primary schools, currently unable to afford them. Tragically in all cases this has amounted to a minimum of 50%. We can now guarantee that 1,000 children who last year were out of school will be going to primary school in January. This is a great achievement. However, there is so much more that needs to be done, noted, Aisbitt.
After decades of the government failing to invest in education, this tragic state of affairs works in their favour. An un-educated, demoralised and apathetic population will always struggle to demand their basic human rights. By denying the children of Zimbabwe any formal education the ruling Zanu (PF) party is depriving them of the tools of stability, self-sufficiency and empowerment.
By investing in schools ZBF hopes over time to guarantee their self-sufficiency and enable them to support themselves. By supporting children through school ZBF is not only safeguarding a basic human right but utilising a relatively small amount of money to make a huge change for the benefitting youth of Zimbabwe. If together we fail to provide an education for the next generation of Zimbabweans, their future and that of the country will inevitably remain uncertain.
Post published in: News