State of Affairs at Zimbabwean Rural Schools Revealed in Report

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By SARAH NCUBE

Published: September 28, 2009

ZIMBABWE – HARARE – Urgent investment is needed to improve the awful infrastructure of remote rural schools around the country, a report on education in the country has said. The Zimbabwe Telegraph reports.

The report was complied by the first post independence minister of education Fay Chung, former legislator Trudy Stevensons and Sharai Chakanyuka.

It is The Rapid Assessment of Primary and Secondary Schools and attributes the infrastructure situation to poverty in rural areas.

The report said these remote areas are very poor and the majority cannot afford to pay levies, which will revive the infrastructure.

“US$4 levy a term was unaffordable to the majority. Hence there was no money whatsoever for repairs,” said the report.

This comes after a national assessment on education was compiled on four provinces, which had a number of remote schools.

These provinces were Mashonaland East, Manicaland, Masvingo and Matabeleland North.

Data from the four reports obtained through focus group discussions and site visits indicate the dilapidating condition of the schools especially in primary schools.
The report said the Rural District Councils, which were the official Responsible Authorities, appeared to have lost interest in these schools and were not providing any support whatsoever to the schools.

“Chitsungo Primary School in Mashonaland East had classrooms without doors and one without a roof. At Bubi Primary School in Masvingo classrooms comprised dilapidated pole and dagga blocks. Ndimimbili Primary School in Matabeleland North had had support from UNICEF in 2003 for two new classrooms, and these were the only ones with furniture and in good condition. Somakonyane Secondary School in Matabeleland North had six classrooms, but was only using three. It was surprising to note that a fully functional primary school, Ndimimbili, with grossly inadequate infrastructure was a few hundred metres away from a half empty secondary school with unused classrooms,” said the former minister.

The primary schools visited had very poor teachers’ houses.

The teachers said they did not feel safe as doors could not be locked and the windows were broken.

“One teacher at Bubi Primary School was living in a roofless and doorless hut. There were no toilets for teachers and pupils in some of the schools visited, so they used the bush, creating a health hazard. The two houses that were available at Ndimimbili Primary School in Matabeleland North had to be shared by several teachers,” said the report.

Teachers at Bubi Secondary School in Masvingo were living in mud huts and six male teachers were sharing a single office room.

The supply of textbooks in both primary and secondary schools is devastating.
Books had not been purchased since 1999.

In terms of furniture there was a general lack of equipment such as blackboards and chalk.

“In Mashonaland East, teachers had to take their children outside so that they could write on the ground. In Matabeleland North, except for the furniture provided by UNICEF, classrooms had little or no furniture, with pupils sitting on planks set on stones or on the floor. They had no writing places,” said the minister.

Despite all this parents have remained interested in the education of their children, as they have formed School Development Committees (SDCs).

“In Matabeleland North parents had eagerly gathered to meet the visiting team, as they valued the opportunity to speak to an authority on the situation of their schools.

However the parents did not understand what makes a good school as they were in constant battle with the teachers.

“In general parents did not understand the functions of their committee. Nor did they understand what constituted a “good” school: they judged a school to be good if teachers were present, as apparently there was a high degree of absenteeism from teachers. Parents wanted teachers who were frequently absent to be removed, but they had no power to do anything about it. There was apparent antipathy and even open antagonism between parents and teachers,” said the report.

A contributing factor to the bad conditions was lack of supervision.

The ministry said that all the remote schools reported lack of supervision that led to the high number of absenteeism and no disciplinary action was taken against the absentee staff.

This highlights the neglect of the remote rural schools and supervision at the highest level is required.

The ministry has recommended that more varied forms of supervision must be devised.
“ For example SDCs can be given the responsibility of checking on teacher and pupil presence and absenteeism, as this appears to be a very serious problem in all these schools,” said the report.

Therefore there is a great need to invest heavily in remote rural schools.
“Substantive promotions must be made expeditiously, with training programmes being instituted for these incumbents. A situation where only 4 out of 70 headships were filled in one district spells neglect and disaster.

Supervision is essential, as it was apparent that these schools had been totally neglected for some years. The traditional forms of supervision requiring education officers traveling by car from the district office on very difficult roads needs to be adjusted, more varied forms of supervision devised,” said the Minister.