Brooks World Poverty Institute and University of Zimbabwe Round Table Conference, Harare, 25 – 26 August 2009

Paper by Fay Chung

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� Primary education free and compulsory

� Primary education a basic human right

� No discrimination by race, religion and sex

� Sec education open to all who can pay fee

� Teachers’ housing built in rural areas

� Ed as major instrument of socio-economic transformation

� Curriculum reform, uniting 2 disparate systems and linked to production and technological change

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� Cost effectiveness of education� State support for non formal ed and literacy� Early childhood ed supported� Partnership between Gvt, parents, community and private sector

� Special ed, with teachers trained at United College

� Use of mother tongue and 2 main national languages

� English as an international language from Grade 1

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� Primary ed for all by early 1980s (35% before)

� Innovative sec ed for about 65% of age group (4% before)

� By 2004, 82% at primary, and 34% at sec.

� Tertiary enrolment 3.9%

� Primary dropouts 37.9%

� Completion of Grade 7, 62.1%

� 64% of Grade 1s had pre-primary ed

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� SACMEQ study of Grade 6 in 1998, reasonable classroom furniture

� 79.7% had a textbook without sharing� 40.8% of classrooms required major repairs� Need for additional facilities, e.g. Libraries (58.2%), staff rooms (30.3%), piped water (37.9%), boreholes (71.1%), electricity (23.6%), telephone (33.6%)

� 95.9% of teacher had 11 years schooling, 77.4% trained, and 90% school heads professionally trained

� 56.4% attained minimal level of English, 37.0% desirable level of English

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� Static primary enrolments around 2.4 million� Lower Grade 7 completion rate (70% vs 75%)� 30% of 5 – 14 year olds involved in child labour � 12 000 street kids in urban areas� Drop in sec ed from 0.827 m in 2001 to 0.774 m in 2006

� “O” levels drop from 159 700 in 200 to 149 263 in 2005

� “A” levels increased from 31 505 in 2001 to 56 566 in 2006

� Grade 7 results shrinking slightly by 2000, about 15% drop for English and Mathematics

� More qualified teachers by 2006

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� Rural urban differentiation in enrolments small

� Gender differentiation nil at primary, small at secondary

� 5 “O” level passes shrank from 23% in 1995 to 14% in 2006

� 40% failed all subject, 40% passed 1 – 3 subjects

� “A” levels continue to improve from 58% in 1990 to 75% in 2006 with 2 Es

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� Zimbabwe tertiary 3.9% of age group cf to 2.5% for SSA, 16.8% East Asia, 29.3% Malaysia, 85.4% S Korea, 57.7% Europe and N America

� Enrolments:◦ University , 9 017 in 1990 to 53 637 in 2006

◦ Agricultural colleges, 667 in 1990 to 173 in 2006 -

◦ Teachers’ colleges stable, 17 802 to 18 297

◦ Technical colleges, 11 683 in 1990 to 19 337 in 2006

◦ Vocational training colleges, 340 in 1990 to 1083 in 2006

◦ Nurses 908 in 1990, figures not available for 2006

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� University enrolments 62.6% men and 37.4% women in 2006

� Agriculture 65.1% men 34.9% women

� Teachers’ colleges 54.2% women 45.8% men

� Technical colleges 70.5% men 29.6% women

� Vocational colleges 88.3% men 11.7% women

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� Commerce and business 31%

� Arts 27.3%

� Agriculture, engineering, medical, science, veterinary, 26.6% (cf 42% Malaysia and South Korea) (Engineering, 2.3%; medicine 3.6%; vet 0.4%; science 15.8%)

� Social Studies 9%

� Education 3.6%

� Law 1.8%

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� Data not analysed and used

� Little decentralization of computerization and analysis

� District and regional offices operating at 40% of establishment

� Loss of staff to diaspora

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� 229 551 enrolled in 2007

� More women (55.1%) than men (44.9%)

� Little curriculum change since 1980s

� No civic education, in particular economic, social and cultural development

� Little or no technical/vocational trainng

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� Average expenditure 1980s, 22% of State budget

� Average expenditure 2000 – 2006, 14.2% of State budget

� Average staff salary 1990/91, US$4 565; 2008, US$560.73 per annum (12.3% of 1990/91 salary)

� Per capita grant 1990/91, US$6.26; 2006, US$0.18 (2.9% of 1990/91 amount).

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� 1990/91, 86.7% for primary/secondary; 2008, 69.5% for primary/secondary

� 1990/91, 13.3% for higher; 2008, 30.5% for higher

� Unit costs 2006 - primary: secondary, 1:1.57

� Unit costs 2006– primary: university, 1: 9.67

� Administration increases from 8.4% of the total in 1990/91 to 17.2% in 2008

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� Weakened state: under staffing and under financing of education

� Strengthening of SADC and other regional institutions

� Diaspora of 2 – 3 million

� Growing globalization

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1. 9 years of free, compulsory and quality basic education

2. Linking education and training to economic development◦ More science and tech/vocational

◦ More tech/vocational at secondary level

◦ Key role of agriculture

◦ Increase number of students in agricultural colleges

◦ Increase number of students in technical/vocational colleges

◦ Need increased enrolments,quality, relevance and diversity in higher education

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◦ More science, technology and engineering in tertiary education

◦ More training of doctors, teachers and nurses –training for region and overseas

3.Education and training for the region

4.Linking education for real life challenges� Prospect of unemployment

� Interpersonal relationships

� HIV/AIDS

� Intergenerational relationships

� Working in Zimbabwe, region and overseas

� Dealing with conflict, paranoia, intolerance, political polarisation, etc.

� Inadequate understanding of economics

� Civic education

� Environmental care and improvement

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5. Development of values, principles and moral education

6. Improvement of the quality of education◦ School construction

◦ School maintenance, furniture and equipment

◦ Pre-primary

◦ Curriculum

◦ Textbooks and teaching/learning materials

◦ Expansion teacher training

◦ Narrow gender gap

◦ Distance education for upgrading/updating

◦ Strengthen inspectorate

◦ Renewal and strengthening ZIMSEC

◦ Renew and increase per capita grants

◦ Provide some free textbooks

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7. Involvement of the community and decentralization◦ Decentralize resources to school level

◦ Decentralize supervision to district level

◦ Pro-poor budgeting

◦ School fees exclude the very poor and destitute

8. Non formal education

9. Strengthening policy and strategy

development

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10. Financing of education◦ Return to 22% of State budget

◦ Realistic teacher salaries

◦ Per capita grant commensurate with costs

◦ Provide for construction, etc.

◦ Better balance between primary, secondary and tertiary

◦ Focus on pre-primary and non formal

◦ Pro-poor budgeting

◦ Lower administration costs

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11. Donor aid◦ Pro-poor donor support

◦ Funds reach grass roots

◦ Emphasis on systemic improvement

◦ More technical/vocational/technology

12. Research and development◦ Link education and training to ec. development

and employment

◦ Utilize data

◦ Better and more monitoring and evaluation

◦ Curriculum research

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� The State

� Private Sector

� Parents and Communities

� Donors

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� A – requires little or no additional funding and immediately implementable. Existing resources can be better coordinated and better utilized. Time frame: one year

� B – requires moderate funding and can be implemented quite quickly. Requires some capacity building and modest additional funding. Time frame: 3 years

� C – requires medium and long term planning. Innovative and developmental. Requires substantial additional funding over a long period. Time frame: 15 years.

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