Author Archives: David Coltart
Teachers punished for supporting MDC
The Zimbabwean By John Chimunhu Monday, 12 October 2009 HARARE – About 8 000 teachers who fled election violence last year and only returned to their posts in 2009 have gone for months without pay as retribution for their perceived support of the MDC, a union official has charged. Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) […]
Teachers End Strike, Union Leaders Threaten New Action in Zimbabwe
VOA By Scott Bobb Harare 12 October 2009 Teachers across Zimbabwe struck for three weeks last month over demands for higher pay. The country’s unity government is coming under increasing pressure as it struggles to raise funds for education and other basic services in the face of depleted revenues caused by the country’s economic problems. […]
Ministry’s killer directive
Sunday Mail By Lovemore Chikova 11th October 2009 THERE is a joke doing the rounds in Harare these days that a person who buys more beer than others in a beerhall or at a bottle store should be a teacher or a headmaster. The joke emanates from the fact that teachers have suddenly become the […]
Students Quit Classes – and Country – As Crisis Deepens
IPS By Ignatius Banda 8th October 2009 BULAWAYO, Oct 8 (IPS) – Schooling is increasingly becoming a privilege of the rich, Zimbabwean parents and teachers’ unions complain. The country’s cash-strapped education ministry is charging a fee of 20 U.S. dollars per ‘A-level’ subject to cover costs – but a majority of students have failed to […]
Coltart Periodically Offside
The Herald By Bhekizulu Sibanda 7 October 2009 OPINION ONE can be forgiven to conclude that the media were instrumental in reversing the examination registration deadline. Was the Ministry of Education going to throw a lifeline to students who had failed to beat the September 25 deadline were it not for the media and public […]
MDC MPs told not to heckle Mugabe during opening of Parliament
SW RadioAfrica By Violet Gonda 6 October 2009 A rather subdued Robert Mugabe finally opened the Second Session of the Seventh Parliament on Tuesday, where Morgan Tsvangirai was also present at the official opening for the first time as Prime Minister. Several parliamentarians also said that for the first time there were no tensions in […]
We’ll never be able to pay say rural parents
The Zimbabwean By Privilege Musvanhiri Monday 5 October 2009 HARARE – Parents have expressed mixed feelings on the decision by the Ministry of Education Sports and Culture to extend loans to students who failed to register for November 2009 public examinations. Maidei Chibvongodze, a parent from Harare’s Mufakose suburb said, “I welcome the latest announcement […]
Too poor to take tests
IRIN 5 October 2009 HARARE, 5 October 2009 (IRIN) – Despite moves to salvage Zimbabwe’s ailing education sector, exorbitant fees are keeping many poor students from writing the examinations that will allow them to gain a school-leaving certificate at the end of 2009. A recent survey by the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) revealed […]
O and A-level exams to be sat in December
Sunday News By Lulu Brenda Harris 4th October 2009 This year’s public examinations are likely to be written as late as December because of printing problems, a Cabinet minister revealed last Thursday. In an interview in Bulawayo, the Minister of Education, Spors, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, said his ministry had only recently engaged […]
The plight of rural schools
Sunday News By Lulu Brenda Harris 4th October 2009 IN his tour of schools in Bulilima last Wednesday the 30th September 2009, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart came face to face with the brutal reality of decay in rural primary schools. “The tour confirmed what I knew all along […]