Eddie Cross
When this country was colonised in 1893 by a tiny band of amateur soldiers and police put together by Rhodes and his associates in the belief that they were extending the British Empire, they found a small country with about 400 000 people, with no schools and only a handful of educated men and women. Many of the colonisers were well educated and trained. They were preceded and followed by Missionaries from the great churches in the west, many of whom had a classical education in addition to their theological training.
They brought with them the legal and political systems developed in the West over the proceeding centuries, including their belief in education. The Settlers went on to build a migrant society that had all the benefits of a middle-income society in the West – schools, hospitals, good roads and railways and eventually air flight. They built Cities and Towns established a diversified economy with a strong stable currency and small government.
All their children went to school which was compulsory for whites. There they got a good education paid for by the State, most teachers were degreed, and Heads of schools were well paid and lived well, owned their own homes and drove a car. They played sport against each other and excelled. The generations produced by that small education system went on to excel across the world.
The Missionaries aided in the creation of this system with great schools and dedicated teachers. But they also felt the need to provide the great majority of the people of Zimbabwe with an education. The main drive being to teach them how to read and write and read the Bible. For many years the Settler regime declined education to the majority paid for by the State, they feared the political consequences. The teaching of mathematics was restricted to the black majority right up to the Second World War.
Black soldiers coming back from the War challenged the system, demand better conditions and equal rights, The Churches were allowed to upgrade what they were doing and expanded their education services to millions of young people. The Rhodesian Government responded by allowing the creation of a small State funded system of “Native” education which had the same standards as the white school system. Many fine educationalists joined this system and provided a high standard of education to perhaps 5 per cent of the black population, now about 5 million. The rest had to rely on the Mission schools which were mostly rural and simple structures with limited capacity. However, at this time the Churches established many schools that provided an elite and exceptional education, often followed by University.
All the first leaders of the African Nationalist Movements which eventually gave us Independence and majority rule in 1980 were the product of these early Church based schools. Broadened by the State school system that came later. Ndabaningi Sithole, Joshual Nkomo, Robert Mugabe, Herbert Chitepo, George Nyandoro – the list goes on.
Our first Cabinet had 17 men in it with good University degrees from some of the best Universities in the world and the one thing they agreed on was the need to expand the State funded school system. Many missionary organisations welcomed this and handed over their schools which were 95 per cent of what was available to the indigenous population.
In the first 5 years of Independence we built a school every day, increasing the number of schools in the State funded sector from 2000 at Independence to 10 000 by 1990. We lifted the number of children at school to 95 per cent and by 2000 we had the most educated population in Africa with extremely high levels of literacy and numeracy.
But it came at a cost, our National Debt which had been a mere US$700 million in 1980 was approaching US$10 billion. We had been the darling of the West at the start with billions being offered in aid and technical assistance. Then came Gukurahundi – a genocide against the main opposition to Zanu PF in 1983, then the unscheduled payment of war veterans in 1997 followed by entry into the war in the Congo in 1988. The isolation and loss of support from foreign countries was felt immediately. The commitment of the international community to primary education for all under the DLG Targets meant nothing.
Budget constraints and political problems began to undermine all that had been achieved in the early heady days of Independence, standards started slipping. The economic collapse from 2000 to 2008 cemented the collapse in education.
We have not been able to recover and today 95 per cent of State controlled and funded schools are in a very poor state, class numbers are 40 to 50 per school classroom. Many have no desks or chairs, teaching materials are not available, teachers and administration staff are very poorly paid and most experienced and good teachers have left the country for greener pastures.
We still have 95 per cent of all children in school and see hundreds of thousands come into the work place every year. We have many Universities and Polytechnics with perhaps half a million students. Thousands graduate every year, but standards are low, and most children come out of the system unable to read or count effectively.
We still have a system of private and Church based schools which maintain high standards and turn out exceptional young women and men who go on to excel where ever they go. But we are failing the great majority. So where do we go from here?
In my view the fundamentals are the following: –
- We must provide for the participation of parents in the education of their children. All State funded schools should become Community based schools with elected School Boards who have the right to control the recruitment and appointment of school staff.
- We currently use about 25 per cent of our National Budget for education in all its different forms. This should be allocated to each school system – primary and secondary, college and University and the resulting funds paid to the schools prorate to their enrolment.
- The rest of what is needed to run the school should be the responsibility of the Community. This will include support from the Diaspora.
- The use of the internet and modern systems of communication to provide all students to access on an individual and collective basis.
- Establish standards for schools to be registered for access to this system including class sizes, audited annual accounts and teaching quality supervised by the Ministry of Education.
- Some support for schools in absolutely poor communities for buildings and other costs, supported by the international community.
If we did this, I think I can guarantee that our schools will recover and start giving our children the education they deserve.
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