Education gains being eroded

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that Zimbabwe's humanitarian and economic crises could dramatically reverse its impressive post-independence education gains.

To mark the launch this week of the global report, "State of the World's Children", UNICEF Zimbabwe on Friday called for urgent attention to be paid to keeping children, especially girl children, in school.

"In Zimbabwe we have a situation where gender parity was almost reached, with an 83 percent enrolment rate for primary school, and a percentage point difference between girls and boys going to school. The problem, though, is that it's under stress now - school is not as much a priority as food, for obvious reasons," said UNICEF's Shantha Bloemen.

IRIN reported on Thursday that recent research suggested more than six million Zimbabweans, over half the population, would require food aid from January to March 2004.

The period, known as the pre-harvest lean season, is also a critical one for the parents of school-going children, as this is when school fees are normally increased.

As a result UNICEF is increasingly worried that the number of school drop-outs, estimated to be up to 10 percent, will further increase in January when schools open and parents and orphans cannot afford what, in some cases, will be a 400 percent hike in fees.

"If the situation continues, we will see a dramatic increase in drop-outs in the first semester of next year," said Bloemen.

Another concern was the state of education in newly resettled farm areas, which are currently served by 346 makeshift satellite schools. "... social services are inadequate for populations moving into resettled areas, and this past year UNICEF has been providing school-in-a-box kits that provide basic learning materials, but we've had very minimal funding," Bloemen noted.

The government was attempting to safeguard its impressive track-record in education under difficult economic circumstances.

Teachers needed to be incentivised to teach in rural resettled areas. "The minister [of education] has argued for this," Bloemen said. But Zimbabwe's allocation for education has already had to be trimmed, although it is still the largest expenditure item in the budget.

"Money is needed for upgrading facilities, etc. We have been trying to make them (satellite schools) at least habitable. We have got to make sure that there is at least access to safe water and sanitation facilities in schools. If you don't have separate toilets for girls and boys, then the girls won't go to school. If there's no borehole, it's harder to attract teachers - living conditions at satellite schools are very, very basic," she explained.

"It's the girls who are often the first ones to drop out, either because they are forced into earlier marriages because it's the best economic option for a family, or they become involved in high-risk behaviour to seek money on the streets," Bloemen commented.

This brought into play the added dimension of HIV/AIDS. The impact is already being felt, as "we now have 780,000 orphans in this country, and it's projected to reach 1.1 million by 2005", she added.

UNICEF was calling for immediate assistance for temporary schools and the construction of teacher housing.

The UNICEF report can be accessed at: www.unicef.org