The Zimbabwean
By Paul Ndlovu
Monday, 30 November 2009
THE Ministry of Education Arts Sport and Culture is bidding for US $1 billion in next year’s national budget to improve the country’s education system which has been plagued by a myriad of problems.
The budget will be presented to Parliament in Harare by the Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti this week.
The Minister of Education, Arts, Sport and Culture Senator David Coltart, said his ministry needed the staggering US$1 billion because the services and infrastructure in most schools were in a chaotic condition.
He urged Minister Biti to give priority to the education sector in his budget.
Sen. Coltart said if allocated the money his ministry would use it in consolidating as well as improving the achievements it has scored so far.
“As I’m speaking we have already forwarded our expectations to the Finance Minister and we hope he will look into it with critically analysis of our sector which I feel has remained fragile for a certain period of time.
Therefore our expectations for this budget amounts to over a Billion United States dollars,” he said.
Senator Coltart said his ministry has been vigorously lobbying for the allocation of this money in the national budget.
Contacted for comment, Minister Biti said he could not reveal how much he allocated Sen Coltart’s ministry arguing that he did not want to pre-empty his presentation.
Sen. Coltart said if the Minister of Finance approved their bid, he was confident that they would make great strides in improving the education sector.
He said the sector under his guidance was slowly recovering pointing out that he had scored several achievements.
Sen. Coltart said since the formation of the Inclusive Government in February this year, a lot has been achieved pertaining improving education.
“I am quit confident to say that we have worked extremely hard to try and restore confidence in our schools by our people,” he said.
Sen. Coltart said amongst the things he had achieved was establishing mutual relations between the ministry, teachers and the unions.