The Financial Gazette
By Financial Gazette Reporter
19 September 2013
AS he hits the ground, hopefully running, in his capacity as the new Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Lazarus Dokora has a key decision he needs to make and urgently.
Dokora will need to decide whether or not he uses the Educational Transitional Funds (ETF), which his party ZANU-PF previously called “illegalâ€.
Established in 2009, at the depth of the near collapse of the education system, with support from donations by several donor countries and organisations, the ETF, managed by the United Nations Children’s Fund, currently has US$160 million available for use by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.
“Dokora needs to make a key decision as to whether or not this money is legal. ZANU–PF has called it illegal in the past,†said former minister of education sport, arts and culture, David Coltart.
“If he decides it is legal to use it, then he will use it, if he decides it’s not then I guess he won’t. At US$160 million the fund will give him a substantial amount to work with.â€
The ETF has provided a major lifeline for the education sector since 2009.
The fund has been used for, among other projects, the textbook purchases which saw the textbook to pupil ratio improve to 1:1 from no textbooks at all in some schools; computerisation of the ministry head office, provincial and district offices and curriculum review.
At its most, the fund stood at over a billion dollars. Conditions of use for the fund are that it not be used for salaries but for text book purchases and printing, training and computerisation among others.
Commitments for funding by the donors have already been secured and the funds are good till to about a year.
“If he decides to use the fund, Dokora does not have any urgent need for other international funds,†Coltart said.
Efforts to reach Dokora yesterday were not fruitful.