The Sunday News

9 July 2012

WITH close to a 100 percent literacy rate and being number one in Africa, Zimbabwe has achieved a milestone in the field of education.

The nation is undoubtedly the envy of many in the region. because of the importance the nation attaches to education many parents invest so much towards ensuring that their children receive the best tutorials money can buy. Children just have to pass because this is the only license to progress. This development has seen some hungry but enterprising teachers organising private tutorials and charging an arm and a leg from parents.

What has been unsettling to most parents have been the fact that some of the teachers mobilised whole classes from boarding schools and brought them into the city for the holiday lessons. Being the class teachers, all the students obliged because there was the risk that the teacher would not go back to the topic come opening of schools. This was real ransom and parents had no choice but to pay.

This is a teacher who deliberately does not finish the syllabus and capitalises on this to make a killing through holiday lessons.

In yesterday’s issue of our sister paper Saturday Chronicle Government announced that it was working on prosecuting teachers who conduct private lessons at a fee in a bid to protect parents and guardians from such unscrupulous educators.

“The tendency in the past has been that teachers would spend much energy conducting private lessons for a fee at the expense of formal lessons in the classroom,” the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Mr David Coltart, said.

We welcome this development and urge the Government to translate its threats into real action. Over the years several pronouncements and threats to take action on headmasters who sent students home for non-payment of fees have been made but no tangible action was taken. Mr Coltart would order heads of schools not to send children home and before the ink of his threats dried children would be returning home on the opening day. This scenario left many wondering who runs the Ministry of Education — the Minister and his permanent secretary, provincial education  directors, education officers or the headmasters.

The war of words between Zimbabwe’s Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Central Bank chief Gideon Gono over the transfer of majority bank shares to local blacks has escalated, exposing fissures and policy discord in the shaky coalition government.

Voice of America reports that the spat between the two intensified in the past few days after Kasukuwere gazetted a notice last Friday targeting foreign banks for indigenization. The financial institutions were given one year to comply with the law.

Gono said in a statement the notice is null and void. The central bank governor said Kasukuwere, a shareholder in the collapsed Genesis Investment Bank, “is not a fit and proper person to deal with banks having been involved with the failed indigenous bank”.

Gono, backed by Finance Minister Tenda Biti, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Education Minister David Coltart, says Kasukuwere is acting unlawfully.

The empowerment minister hit back Thursday in a Facebook entry accusing Gono of being “immature”. He said there was no going back on the indigenization of the financial sector.

The International Monetary Fund has warned Harare of the destabilizing effects of tinkering with the financial sector.

But Kasukuwere’s legal adviser Psychology Mazivisa said there is no going back on the empowerment program, adding his ministry is simply following the law.

Parliamentary budget and finance committee chairman Paddington Zhanda said Gono is misleading the nation as Kasukuwere is simply implementing the law, good or bad.

Independent  economic consultant Luxson Zembe said Harare must exercise caution on indigenizing foreign-owned banks.

• The things I love about Zimbabwe – great opinion piece by Vine Musewe http://t.co/RfMwnmue #
• We need a transparent national debate regarding developments at Mana Pools. See my posts on FB. We must protect this national jewel. #
• Zimbabwe set to become one of the fastest growing economies http://t.co/WG7BQF8d – that is so long as we can bring sanity to our policies #
• ESPN: "Chris Gayle's scores since his international return: 53, 2 , 85*, 53, 63*, 50*" Well done he is almost as good as Hamilton Masakadza! #
• Hamilton Masakadza this year: v NZ 53, 62, v Bangladesh 14, 102*, 62, 56, v SA 55, 36 and 58*. Come on ESPN that is better than Gayle! #
• Strength to the collective arms of Bosso as they take on Caps United this afternoon. I know I am meant to be neutral but so be it! #
• Zimbabwe Minister, Central Bank Chief Spar Over Indigenization of Banks http://t.co/8TJY5pmv #
• Off to Barbourfields to watch Bosso take on Caps United. Go Bosso! Let's get this championship all sown up. #

The Chronicle

By Freedom Mupanedemo

6 July 2012

GOVERNMENT is working on prosecuting teachers who conduct private lessons at a fee in a bid to protect parents and guardians from such unscrupulous educators, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, said.

In an interview on Thursday, Minister Coltart said the ministry was concerned with the high number of private tutorships in the country.

He said the development was compromising the teachers’ work rate in the formal classroom.

“As the responsible ministry, we want teachers to exhaust their energy in the formal classroom teaching rather than conduct private lessons. This makes life very difficult for parents and guardians by charging exorbitant fees,” said Minister Coltart.

“The tendency in the past has been that teachers would spend much energy conducting private lessons for a fee at the expense of formal lessons in the classroom.”

The minister’s remarks came amid revelations that his ministry had launched a clampdown on unregistered private colleges and individual teachers who were conducting private lessons while demanding huge sums of money from guardians and parents.

Minister Coltart said his ministry would, however, not bar teachers from conducting “genuine” extra lessons meant to benefit pupils.

“The problem is that there are some who have turned extra lessons into a business. The ministry will, however, not bar teachers from conducting genuine extra lessons where they do not charge anything. We want to protect parents from paying money for these so called private lessons,” he said.

Minister Coltart said the clamp down on commercial private lessons and unregistered private colleges was a national programme meant to flush out all corrupt teachers and unregistered private colleges which “are ripping-off parents and guardians”.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture officials in the Midlands province have closed down a number of unregistered private colleges as part of the ongoing clampdown.

A number of teachers conducting private lessons in their homes have also been netted.

“All the teachers and unregistered private colleges which have been forced to close operations have been operating in breach of Section 42 of the Education Act,” said an official.

He said those found conducting unsanctioned private lessons would be reported to the police.

Some of the private colleges that have so far been closed in Gweru include New Era College, A Plus Academy and Pinnacle College.

“For some time, I have been concerned about what I perceive as an inequitable distribution of international sporting fixtures in Zimbabwe. For example, the Warriors have not played outside of Harare for some time, thus depriving football supporters throughout Zimbabwe of the opportunity to watch the national team.”

With these words David Coltart, the Minister of Education, Sport and Culture, directed the Sports and Recreation Commission to stage national soccer matches outside Harare. My spontaneous reaction as I came across this was – Bravo Mr Coltart! Having lived in Johannesburg for the past four years, I have seen South African national teams, including the senior men’s national side, play in all provinces.

I have travelled to the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit and Durban’s Moses Mabhida, flown to the Cape Town Stadium in the Mother City and the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane to watch Bafana Bafana in action, recognising the importance of all supporters. The gesture by the South African Football Association to decentralise the national teams has made it appeal to every South African. When the team wins, the whole country celebrates, and when it loses, the feeling of despair engulfs the whole of South Africa.

Someone has at last awakened the supreme sporting body to the fact that a fan living at Number 4 in the hot mining town of Hwange, Mkoba in Gweru, Makokoba in Bulawayo, Mhlotshana in Victoria Falls and Dulibadzimu in Beitbridge is as important as their counterpart in Mbare/Msika, Harare.

This will not power the Warriors above Spain in terms of performance, but will make them resonate with every soccer fan’s mind and make them truly national. A child from Binga’s Siabuwa is very eager to see Knowledge Musona turn defenders inside-out at the Colliery Stadium, just as one from Luveve would love to be sent in frenzy as Khama Billiat rattles the nets in national team colours at Barbourfields Stadium.

There are many Zimbabwean adults who never got the opportunity to watch Peter Ndlovu in action in his international career that spanned 15 years and saw him bang in more than 30 goals, yet they wished to. It is also beyond debate that most Zimbabweans, especially in the western region, would rather identify with Bafana Bafana than the Warriors because they feel shunned.

This is a negative that Coltart’s directive, if followed, will effectively address. Some businessmen outside Harare do not find reason to sponsor the national team because they stand to gain no mileage from its games if they continue to be played only in Harare, away from the target markets. Development of not only soccer stadia, but the road network and hospitality infrastructure in the provinces will also follow.

It boggles the mind why the SRC has not seen this before. Comically, when the Warriors lost 0-1 to Guinea in a World Cup qualifier this year, the National Sports Stadium turf was criticised, yet this same could have been avoided by shifting the game to another venue.

The following was originally published in TIMES Live:

A government notice issued last week by empowerment minister Saviour Kasukuwere gave foreign-owned banks and private schools a year to comply with a law requiring 51% shareholding by local blacks.

But Minister of Education David Coltart, a member of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party in a coalition government formed with President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, said the directive was illegal.

“This action is unlawful, unconstitutional and therefore unenforceable,” Coltart said on his official Twitter account.

Coltart also told the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Wednesday that Kasukuwere had previously assured him that private schools would not be targeted under the empowerment drive.

He said most private schools, formerly the preserve of whites but are now largely multi-racial, were owned by churches and trusts.

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who is sharing power with long-ruling Mugabe in a shaky coalition, has also sharply criticised the empowerment law and said Kasukuwere’s latest announcement does not reflect the cabinet’s position.

Kasukuwere, a Mugabe ally, has already forced mining companies such as Rio Tinto and Impala Platinum, the world’s second-largest platinum miner, to turn over majority stakes in their local units to black Zimbabweans.

Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Tuesday dismissed as unconstitutional a government notice published by the indigenization ministry compelling foreign-owned banks, schools and other sectors of the economy to start transferring majority shares to locals.

Mr. Tsvangirai said the power-sharing government did not sanction Indigenization Minister Saviour Kasukuwere to issue the notice last Friday which he believes is a threat to local investments.

He said grabbing private entities or properties is unlawful under the country’s constitution. Some of the targeted companies include those in the tourism, energy and telecommunications sectors.

Private school owners, business executives and Education Minister David Coltart reacted angrily to Kasukuwere’s notice compelling the targeted entities to cede a 51 percent stake to local blacks in line with the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act.

Coltart said he will fight to the bitter end to ensure no school will be forcibly seized. Economists insist that such moves are blocking foreign direct investment.

Former headmaster Paul Ngwenya said it is impossible to indigenize private schools set up by various communities.

His views were echoed by John Mufukare of the Employers Confederation of Zimbabwe, who said the indigenization program has become a national disgrace.

The Chronicle

4 July 2012

THOUSANDS of orphans and underprivileged primary school pupils under the Basic Education Assistance Module are likely to be stranded after Unicef pulled out of the programme.

Unicef has been supporting more than 400 000 disadvantaged primary school pupils for the past three years. Government fully pays tuition fees for Beam secondary school children while donors, through Unicef, catered for primary school pupils.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart yesterday said the pullout by Unicef would have “serious consequences” on the underprivileged children. The development, he said, would “heap” more responsibilities on an already constrained Government. “The move is going to have serious consequences on the lives of pupils under Beam,” said Minister Coltart. “What this means is Government will be forced to settle the difference but it’s common knowledge that Government does not have the resources. “Last term, more than 400 000 pupils in primary education were supposed to benefit but not all of them got the assistance as funding from the donors was not enough. Government on the other hand has been struggling to cover the secondary school pupils,” he said.

Beam was set up in 2000 to provide school fees for disadvantaged pupils. Minister Coltart said the British Department for International Development, which paid a huge chunk of the fees for the pupils last term, indicated that it would also stop funding the programme next term. DFID promotes sustainable development and elimination of poverty worldwide. “DFID has funded the programme for the past six months of this year and have indicated that they are not able to continue. “This leaves us in the cold and much needs to be done because those children have to be in school. My ministry will be working hand in hand with Minister of Labour and Social Welfare (Paurina Mupariwa) to ensure that something has been done for the pupils,” he said. He added: “The permanent solution lies in working hard towards achieving our Millennium Development Goals. One of the goals in education is to achieve free education for all pupils in primary school. For this to be realised it calls for collective action.” Beam is managed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Services for the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture

Minister Mupariwa said schools were in the process of processing Beam applications for the second term. “DFID paid for the first term and it is our hope that funding for the second term will be availed to assist the children. We hope DFID will pay the money that is going to be coordinated by Crown Agents.

“If that happens, then it means the children will be safe,” she said. Beam has assisted a lot of children in the country and has been doing a lot to meet the educational needs of orphans and vulnerable children.

The Zimbabwe Football Association says they are keen and committed to staging international matches at other venues outside Harare, but the desire to do so is being hampered by severe financial constraints.

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation report that the comments come in the wake of the recent concerns raised by the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart who communicated his apprehension through correspondence to the Sport and Recreation Commission.

Senator Coltart expressed worry over what he deems as an inequitable distribution of international match, manifested through the fact that the Warriors have not played outside of Harare for some time, thus depriving football supporters across the country of the opportunity to watch the national team in action.

ZIFA President Cuthbert Dube responded to the Minister’s concerns by saying the football motherbody has nothing against staging international matches outside Harare, but are being pinned back by severe financial limitations.

“We would love to have matches at other venues but there’s a lot that involved in staging matches outside Harare. People should realise that if teams come they need to be flown to these venues but we don’t have the resources to do so.

“We are actually reeling from lack of funding so it becomes difficult for bus to take matches outside Harare. If we receive funding from the ministry then other venues will host international matches,” said Dube.

Minister Coltart last week issued a directive for national sporting events to be held across the country with effect from the 1st of next month.

The debate of venues only in Harare being used to host international matches has raged on for some time with some questioning why the capital city is enjoying the monopoly of staging national team matches.

Others blame ZIFA for demonstrating a lack of enterprise in generating resources to sustain its operations and spread matches beyond Harare, highlighting the need for the football motherbody to first put its house in order before going around with begging bowls in hand.