Zimbabwe: Primary and Secondary Education Minister – Torerai Moyo announced that the nation is facing a massive shortage of schools and a crisis in education. The ministry has revealed that Zimbabwe has a staggering shortage of 2,800 basic education facilities.
The shortage of facilities, contradicts the claims of government of success in the education sector. However, the considered sector faces a deep crisis due to a lack of resources that includes funding, and learning materials and also concerns the shortage of teachers.
According to the sources, the crisis of facilities is exacerbated by the poor salaries allotted to teachers, officials, and other staff members. The poor salaries eventually lead to poor work conditions.
Along with leading to the shortage of staff, this also leads to brain drain and high dropout rates. Instead of addressing the root causes education Minister Torerai Moyo declared the plans to shut down the unregistered private schools.
The closing of unregistered private schools may only address symptoms rather than the underlying issues.
According to the Federation of Zimbabwe, when the majority of the students is a not learning, it affects the entire country by increasing poverty and threatening the nation’s economy.
Recalling previous reports, over 67% of Zimbabwean schoolchildren did not have access to holistic, quality education, which would ensure that they could reach their full potential.
Notably, most Zimbabwean learners in both primary and secondary schools still receive a traditional rote education, which is not in line with the needs of a developing economy.
Most of the learners live in marginalized rural areas that lack basic infrastructure, running water, and electricity. The kids face enormous hardships including poverty, hunger, trauma and school systems that do not provide them with the education that they need to escape the poverty and build their better future.
The political and economic instability has impacted government revenues negatively and has resulted in the underfunding of essential educational services.