Newsday

15 February 2011

By Fortune Moyo

Education, Sport and Culture minister David Coltart says there is need to revamp the schools’ history curriculum to include the Gukurahundi era, roles played by the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Zapu and Zipra, to enable students to fully appreciate history of the liberation struggle.

In a recent interview, Coltart said history textbooks currently in schools were silent on important roles played by Nkomo, Zapu or Zipra in the country’s liberation struggle.

“In the current history curriculum, one would struggle to understand the role that Joshua Nkomo, Zapu and Zipra played in the liberation of the country,” he said.

“The history and incidence of Gukurahundi are not even mentioned in the current history curriculum.

“Our curriculum therefore needs to be modernised to factor in certain incidents of history,” he said.

“Our curriculum has not been reviewed since 1986 and there is also need for us to catch up on information technology.”

Zimbabwe’s schools are using a curriculum that was last reviewed in the 80s, a situation that has contributed to the free fall in education standards and put the country out of sync with fast-changing education trends globally.

Coltart said his ministry had engaged a local education expert based in the United States, Josiah Tlou, to review the country’s curriculum.

The new curriculum would include academic, vocational and social education as a way of widening knowledge in pupils.

Some time at the end of 2009, the National Educational Advisory Board recommended the Ministry of Education’s “structures need to be reviewed to cope with recent changes and challenges, particularly in terms of providing a more updated curriculum which caters for a globalised economy”.

Africa.World 247.net

February 15, 2011

A WEEK after being expelled by his party, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara has reportedly hatched a plan to kick three ministers who engineered his ouster out of government.

In its evening bulletins on Monday, the state-run Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation said Mutambara was “mulling a cabinet reshuffle which is likely to affect Professor Welshman Ncube, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and David Coltart, if it sails through”.

But senior government sources said Mutambara’s move was unlikely to gain traction with President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who are both keen to move on from recent attempts to throw Mutambara out of government by the MDC.

Mugabe was instrumental in blocking Mutambara’s ouster from government after telling Ncube, the new MDC leader, that he would not swear him in as Deputy Prime Minister.

“Mutambara can try but he will find Mugabe and Tsvangirai lack appetite, as they did in his case, in upsetting the coalition government’s operations,” said one official.

Ncube is currently the Industry and International Trade Minister; Coltart the Education, Sport and Culture Minister and Misihairabwi-Mushonga the Minister for Regional Integration and International Cooperation.

Citing unnamed legal experts, the ZBC said “Mutambara has legal grounds to carry out the move considering the fact that the congress which elected Ncube into the MDC presidential post is under a pending legal challenge”.

A dozen disgruntled MDC officials filed a court petition, seeking to annul the decisions of a January 8 and 9 congress which Mutambara attended and addressed after deciding not to challenge Ncube.

But Coltart, the party’s legal affairs secretary, said the court challenge was being used by both the disgruntled members who lost positions and the party’s political opponents to frustrate efforts to sideline Mutambara.

“Courts are also used as a delay mechanism to frustrate political goals,” Coltart said last week after the party’s national council expelled Mutambara and declared him a functionary of President Mugabe’s Zanu PF party.

Daily News

By Enock Muchinjo, Deputy Sports Editor

Monday, 15 February 2011

HARARE – Pitiful Zimbabwe bowed out of the second-rate African Nations Championships (Chan) tournament prematurely, as largely expected, following defeat to a South African Development XI on Sunday evening in Sudan.

In the end, it was wasted emotions to mourn over an early exit from a tournament doomed from the start when the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) imprudently decided to book the team in a substandard Avenues budget lodge with players threatening to strike due to non-payment of camping allowances.

The greatest tragedy is that Zimbabwean football is under a new leadership which swept into office with a promise to restore pride and sanity to a game damaged by serious allegations of match-fixing, bribery, maladministration and corruption.

Now, if that same FA cannot perform an essential duty like properly kitting out its utmost symbol of identity, the national team, you shudder to imagine what the future holds if that is a depiction of its overall competence.

A nice kit is all part of taking pride in your team. Look good, play good.

It is also something that gives a team the initial advantage when it gets onto the pitch.

The team neither had a proper uniform nor training kit when the players were first called into camp, only for Zifa to “buy” over-sized red T-shirts and counterfeit white Puma longs which one player described as “ugly and embarrassing”.

The team’s swag was further dented when the Warriors, possibly the worst dressed team in the tournament, turned up in a horrible yellow strip (and another white one) which was not branded.

Turning to the tournament itself, what is Chan and what purpose does it serve?

The idea behind it, to be honest, is noble. It is a tournament for African players still plying their trade in their home leagues.

But the tournament loses its foundation value the moment other countries send their best premier division players while others, like South Africa, sees it as a wonderful opportunity to give its lower division players a rare, or even once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent their country.

When the usual critics would have lined up to condemn the South Africans for “disrespecting” the tournament, the youngsters gave them no chance by convincingly winning all their three pool games against supposedly stronger opposition, a major boost to South Africa’s development drive.

So, from a Zimbabwean point of view, the question that arises is whether this tournament is worth the trouble.

Next month, the national side will resume its quest to qualify for the more prestigious 2012 African Nations Cup, yet Zifa saw it fit to spend a  US$180 000 government  hand-out on a useless tournament beforehand.

It is a given fact that Zifa will come back begging for money to fulfil the Afcon fixtures.

The money given to Zifa for the Chan trip was taken from a US$800 000 allocation said by Sports Minister David Coltart to be meant for sports administration alone.

Football cannot continue enjoying preferential treatment at the expense of other disciplines.

Imagine if Zimbabwe Cricket had gone to the ministry asking for US$400 000 for the forthcoming ICC World Cup? What would be left for grassroots sports development, which that money is meant for?

Sports Associations must get their act together and attract private sector sponsorship, Zifa included.

ZBC

14 February 2011

Information emanating from within the embattled MDC movement has revealed that Professor Arthur Mutambara is mulling a cabinet reshuffle which is likely to affect Professor Welshman Ncube, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and David Coltart, if it sails through.

The MDC drama, which has seen back and forth recalls being announced by the battling two professors Arthur Mutambara and Welshman Ncube, is poised to gain momentum this week.

Sources from both camps told ZBC News that Mutambara is likely to make his move anytime the week.

The move is set to see Professor Welshman Ncube, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga and David Coltart recalled from their cabinet posts.

With some legal experts pointing out that Mutambara has legal grounds to carry out the move considering the fact that the congress which elected Ncube into the MDC presidential post last year is under a pending legal challenge, ugly battles are set to ensure.

While pointing out that the issue has not been discussed in the Mutambara camp, former Deputy Organising Secretary, Mr. Morgan Changamire, who is aligned to the Joubert Mudzumwe faction, said even if the move is confirmed, Mutambara has the right do it.

Changamire said as president of the MDC, Mutambara has the prerogative to carry out any reshuffle and should the people decide to do so, then the move will be done.

Ncube’s deputy spokesperson, Mr. Kurauone Chihwayi, told ZBC News in a telephone interview, that although they have picked up information to that regard, Mutambara has no legal mandate to reshuffle cabinet posts as he is no longer part of the MDC.

Chihwayi said they are not taking Mutambara seriously as they do not consider him as part of the party.

While Ncube has previously claimed that the inclusive government will collapse if he is not made principal, he has woken up to a harsh reality that the Zimbabwean political landscape is way too bigger than what he imagined.

Standard

By Irvine Mugwagwa

Sunday, 13 February 2011

THE issue of corporal punishment in schools has been debated for a long time. We had serious debates about it during our time in high school in the 80’s and up to now it is still a topical subject but with no solution found.

I agree in the analysis that people who were exposed to severe corporal punishment as children at home and in school are more likely to use violence later in life in an attempt to solve social problems.

It must be noted that to punish somebody is usually to cause that person to suffer for an offence. Punishment can therefore be referred to as the social disapproval of an undersirable act resulting in personal discomfort or pain.

Punishment is indeed a device to which parents or teachers resort to maintain discipline at home or at school. Itsmain purpose is to bring about a change for the better so that the offending individuals desist from activities that may be harmful to either themselves or others around them.

Corporal punishment should not be administered everytime  a child does something wrong. This can cause that child to develop resistance. The child may not see the reason for being punished. I support a statement by Education minister David Coltart that “corporal punishment should  only be administered when a child has committed a very serious offence”.

Corporal punishment should be  swift and painful.

Our country has a history of violence, especially towards elections. Youths are used by politicians to fulfil their political ambitions. With promises of money and employment, the youths are bombarded with manipulated political history which is distorted to project the party’s political aspirations.

Hate propaganda is infused  into the youths so that they think it is right  kill those holding different views to their own.

Many people become law- abiding citizens because they were moulded by ther parents and teachers to be responsible citizens.

People who are violent either grew-up in very abusive environments or were left alone to do whatever they wanted, with their parents and teachers failing to discipline them.

Zimbabwe as a country must have an established and predictable  pattern of behaviour. There must be rules, values and norms with which every law-abiding citizen must conform.

Sunday Mail

13 February 2011

By Gwendoline Mugauri

SOME day primary schools in Harare have come under fire for demanding school development levy top-ups in groceries from Grade One and Grade Zero pupils.

The grocery items — which include cooking oil, laundry soap, toilet detergent, exercise books, pencils, bond paper, crayons, newsprint, chair backs, pens and drawing pins — are, in most instances, valued at almost 50 percent of the stipulated levies.

North Park, Haig Park, Houghton Park, Southerton, Selbourne Routledge, Alfred Beit, David Livingstone and Emerald Hill primary schools are among those reportedly making such demands.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Senator David Coltart immediately warned that authorities would move to ensure accountability at the concerned schools.

He said although his ministry allowed State-run learning institutions to source additional stationery from parents, transparency was still required. “If correctly analysed, the funding for education is never enough to cater for all schools as well as run the Education Ministry,” he said. “Sometimes the ministry fails to avail all the necessary stationery to schools and this disadvantages pupils. “We have, therefore, made provision for schools to ask parents to cater for some of the requirements like exercise books while we provide textbooks, chalk and other materials. “We require accountability and transparency so that parents know why they have to buy stationery and how it will be used.”

Parents who spoke to The Sunday Mail last week accused school authorities of ripping them off. They said all requirements should be factored into the school development levy. A North Park parent, who declined to be identified, said the school had requested each Grade One pupil to bring a box of bond paper.

“I understand that we have to buy books and crayons. However, asking us to purchase a box of bond paper is absolutely absurd!” said the parent.
“The Government should not allow such insanity to prevail.”

Another parent, also preferring anonymity, said: “I do not understand why these schools are ripping us off like this. “A child doing Grade One is expected to bring blue and red pens, why? “The entire list I got from Haig Park Primary School cost me US$50. One wonders what the purpose of levies is.”

North Park Primary School head Mr Wilson Chinhanga dismissed reports about his school, saying the institution provided all the necessary stationery for its pupils.
He called on parents to expose any members of staff who demanded additional material.

Senator Coltart, in turn, urged aggrieved parents to approach their respective education district officers for recourse. “Parents have the right to question transparency if they are suspicious. We actually urge them to do so,” he said. “In other cases, School Development Associations (SDAs) can request our approval to raise levies to facilitate the purchase of stationery. “They are, however, not supposed to raise levies and simultaneously ask parents to provide stationery. “Asking for non-learning material like cooking oil is going over the edge; that is not allowed.”

Newsday

By Owen Gagare

11 February 2011

President Robert Mugabe has refused to swear-in Welshman Ncube as Deputy Prime Minister insisting he wants Arthur Mutambara to remain in that position, MDC secretary-general Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga revealed on Thursday.

Speaking after the party’s emergency national council meeting called in the wake of Mutambara’s refusal to be redeployed to the less prestigious Ministry of Regional Integration and International Cooperation, Misiharabwi-Mushonga also announced the former student leader had been expelled from the Ncube-led MDC.

The circus in the MDC took an interesting turn on Wednesday when Mutambara announced he was back at the helm of the party, a position he voluntarily relinquished last month, and that he had fired Ncube from the party.

Announcing Mutambara’s expulsion, Misiharabwi-Mushonga said the robotics professor could keep the DPM post because the party was convinced President Mugabe would not change his position.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said her party had received information to the effect that President Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai had taken a position to protect Mutambara. The position, she said, had been taken at the GPA principals’ last meeting in December last year.

Ncube met President Mugabe on Tuesday and formally briefed him about the leadership change in the MDC and the standing committee decision to elevate him (Ncube) from Industry and Commerce minister to the deputy premiership.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said Ncube had also advised President Mugabe of the party decision to move her (Misihairabwi-Mushonga) to Ncube’s Industry portfolio.

She said the President was not forthcoming and only indicated he would consult Tsvangirai.

They met again on Wednesday and President Mugabe said Tsvangirai was out of the country, but Ncube pressed for a response so that he could inform his national council.

“President Mugabe said ‘you can tell your national council that mina (me) as Robert Mugabe angifuni (I don’t want)’,” said Misihairabwi-Mushonga.

“The resolution by the national council therefore is that we understand the position of President Mugabe. We understand that there is not going to be a swearing-in of Ncube as the Deputy Prime Minister. We know that he (President Mugabe) has done it before and he will do it again.”

She said the President understood that a congress was held and that there was a leadership change but cited the same reasons given by Mutambara, including that the matter was in court, as reasons for his refusal to swear-in Ncube.

“Interestingly, he said go and fight and defeat him. When Ncube pointed out that Mutambara was defeated at congress, he said go and fight him in court,” she said.

“He said he wanted to work with Mutambara and said they have been working as a trio for a long time and have been working well.”

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the party would not fight for the DPM post in court as it was aware that the process would take long, but said Mutambara was no longer representing the interests of the party.

She said the MDC was now convinced Mutambara had sold out to Zanu PF.

She said her party would propose an amendment to the GPA to make it clear that one of the DPM posts should now be filled by Zanu PF so that Mutambara would be formally accommodated in the inclusive government.

“We have effectively donated the DPM post and Mutambara to Zanu PF,” she said.

She said Mutambara was not his own man as it was clear he had been consulting and seeking advice from President Mugabe.

She also accused him of revealing intimate details of the party to the President, including the party strategies.

MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart said the party took the decision not to fight for the DPM post after the realisation that a buy-in from other GPA principals was needed if they were to remove Mutambara.

“Courts are also used as a delay mechanism to delay political goals,” he said.

Zimeye.org

11 February 2011

Grade one pupils are being punished for failing to draw President Robert Mugabe’s portrait and congratulatory massages below it.

ZimEye witnessed some grade one pupils at Admiral Tait Primary school in Harare being ordered by their teachers to draw the aging President’s portrait and inscribe: ‘21st Movement, happy birthday to you’ below the portrait.

Infants who fail to do the assignment are being delayed from their early breaking time. The teachers said the directive was coming from the Ministry Education that every grade one child should do the assignment which would be sent back to the ministry before Friday this week as Robert Mugabe’s 21st February birthday celebrations draw near.

“We were just told that we should make them draw the portrait and submit the drawings to the ministry this week. They said it’s a running competition,” answered one teacher who pleaded not to be named after ZimEye had asked the reason why the minors were being delayed.

In an interview on Thursday Education Arts Sports and Culture Minister David Coltart said politicians should leave the education sector.

“I have said consistently that schools should not be political battle grounds in any form or fashion, that is why I put bans on any political party using schools for political rallies; its illegal and unwarranted for politicians to coerce teachers, headmasters and worse still school children to provide money for any political party activities.

“I have always said this contradicts our fundamental educational policy,” he said.

ZANU (PF) youths teachers in Harare are also reportedly forcing teachers through their headmasters that they should leave at least two days a week for lessons about the liberation struggle.

The teachers said most headmasters who ignored the order were being victimised by the youths who went from school to school asking whether the children were, in fact, being taught about their party instead of being educated on Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.

The teachers were also being forced to donate cash and in kind for President Robert Mugabe’s 87th birthday bash under the banner of the “21st February Movement”.

The movement was formed by the current Minister of Information and Publicity, Webster Shamu, and is meant to honour and praise the ailing President Mugabe annually.

Zimbabwe Independent

11 February 2011

By Paidamoyo Muzulu

THE MDC leadership wrangle took a new twist yesterday when the party’s national council expelled former president Arthur Mutambara from the party for having allegedly willfully conspired with Zanu PF in trying to resist his redeployment in government as proposed by the party’s standing committee.

The move comes hardly a day after Mutambara on Monday said he did not recognise the leadership elected at the party’s congress last month and subsequently fired Welshman Ncube from the party on Wednesday for allegedly causing confusion.

The party’s new secretary-general and Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation, Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, yesterday said the national council decision was informed by the discussion that took place between new Ncube and President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday on the party’s proposed deployment.

The national council unanimously resolved to summarily revoke Mutambara’s membership using Section 4.11 and 4.10 of the party’s constitution,” Misihairabwi-Mushonga said. “President Mugabe on Wednesday told Ncube that he would not swear him in as deputy prime-minister as he enjoyed a good working relationship with Mutambara.”

Section 4.11 says that the national council by a majority of two thirds of its membership can expel a member whose continued membership is detrimental to the party, while Section 4.10 says a member who joins or support any other party than MDC is automatically dismissed.

Mugabe is alleged to have said: “I, as Robert Mugabe, will not swear you, Ncube (in) as deputy prime-minister. I want to work with Arthur and we are a trio with Tsvangirai.”

Misihairabwi-Mushonga added that Mutambara last December before the party’s congress had sought and received an endorsement from the other principals in the inclusive government that he should not be removed from the position of deputy premier.

“Since December last year, Mutambara had a deal with the other principals,” she alleged, “They had a strategy to go to the courts and let the matter freeze there like they have done in the past. Mugabe had notes on all meetings that Mutambara had with senior party members, including details such as which restaurant we had coffee at when we discussed party matters.”

MDC leadership conceded that there was very little political room to move after Mugabe’s Wednesday position and resolved to give up the fight for the deputy premiership.

“Mutambara’s tenure depends on Mugabe. Politically there is little we can do,” party legal secretary David Coltart said. “We have a political problem and the courts will be used as a delaying tactic and the case will not move forward. So it’s a waste of time and resources.”

The party cited Mugabe’s refusal to swear in MDC-T’s Roy Bennett as deputy minister on legal grounds and the outstanding electoral petitions since 2000.

The national council resolved that they would write to the other principals and facilitator, South African

President Jacob Zuma, about Mugabe’s position and their resolve to amend Section 20 of the GPA to reflect the new political reality in the country.

“We will write to the facilitator and other principals that Mugabe has continued to violate the GPA by refusing to swear in our nominees just like he did on Bennett,” Misihairabwi-Mushonga said. “To that end we will propose the agreement be amended to say the other deputy prime-minister comes from Zanu PF since Mugabe wants Mutambara and will not respect MDC appointees.”

RadioVOP

11 February 2011

Harare. Education, Art, Sports and culture Minister David Coltart has condemned Zanu (PF)’s violent activities which have spread to the education sector where rowdy youths are demanding President Robert Mugabe’s birth day gifts from teachers and school children.

“I have said consistently that schools should not be political battle grounds, in any form or fashion that is why I put bans on any political party using schools for political rallies,” Coltart told Radio VOP on Thursday.

He said it was wrong to coerce teachers, headmasters and worse still school children to provide money for any political party activities. “I have always said this contradicts our fundamental educational policy,” he said.

“In a nutshell what I can say is that all political parties please stay away from schools, please stop intimidating teachers, and stop disturbing innocent school children, because you are spoiling their future,” he said.

Zanu (PF) youths have been going to schools in Harare asking innocent school children to donate US$1 each for President Robert Mugabe’s 87th birthday bash.

Minister Coltart admitted that the recent Harare political violence had affected the education sector.

“Yes I have received reports of sporadic disturbances caused by violence, incidences of teachers being forced to donate some cash, and it’s unacceptable.”

Coltart said continued disturbances in the country’s education sector would reverse the gains the country had achieved over the past three decades.

Zimbabwe has one of the best literacy rate records in Africa but analysts are worried that this impressive record could soon be thrown out of the window if the youths are allowed to continue terrorising teachers and headmasters.