Zimbabwean

By Fungi Kwaramba

22 July 2010

HARARE – More than 15 000 teachers have rejoined the profession since the unity government took office last year and improved salaries for civil servants including teachers, Education Minister David Coltart said last week. 

However Coltart said while remuneration for teachers was sufficient to lure them back to classrooms it remained well below preferable levels, adding that he was pushing the government to improve salaries for the country’s educators.
“Despite the low salaries that teachers are getting over 15 000 have returned since last year blanket amnesty for all teachers to return,” Coltart said last week.
“Teachers are being paid sufficiently to get back into the system, but I reiterate that I understand that teachers salaries are inadequate and I am continuously arguing in cabinet for equality in the civil service. There are many people in the civil service who are being paid far more than teachers,” he added.
Education experts say Zimbabwe requires about 150 000 trained teachers for effective teaching but has plus or minus 100 000 teachers in schools because of a severe brain drain that saw thousands of the country’s best qualified educators either leaving the country for better paying jobs abroad or leaving teaching to join other more rewarding sectors of the economy.
Several hundreds more teachers are also said to have left schools especially in rural areas after unprecedented post-electoral violence that swept across the country following the defeat of President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zanu (PF) party in elections in March 2008.
Teachers were targeted for attack by Zanu (PF) militia and war veterans who accused them of campaigning for the then opposition MDC party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The exodus of teachers coupled with the government’s inability over the past 10 years of recession to maintain schools or provide learning materials such as chalks, textbooks and exercise books has left Zimbabwe’s once revered education sector a mere shadow of its former self.
Coltart, who has battled to revive the public education sector despite scarce resources, said his ministry will push hard to restore dignity to the teaching profession that many young Zimbabweans now shun because of its record of poor pay and working conditions.
He said: “My first priority is to ensure that teachers are paid sufficiently so as to restore their integrity. The good side is that we have an incredibly dedicated teaching staff which is the essential ingredient in improving the education sector.”
Teachers in Zimbabwe’s public schools earn an average US$236 monthly wage as the power-sharing government struggles to revive an economy battered by years of hyperinflation, lure back investors and pay its workers.

New Zimbabwe.com

By Mduduzi Mathuthu

21 July 2010

EDUCATION Minister David Coltart says Western sanctions on Zimbabwe are “past their sell-by-date” and are now being used by President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party to hinder the full implementation of a 2008 power sharing agreement.

Coltart, who describes his relationship with Mugabe over the last 30 years as “chequered”, also insists in a BBC interview that the pact signed following disputed and violence-marred elections was the only non-violent option available to the President’s rivals.

Asked by the BBC’s Hardtalk host Stephen Sackur if he thought sanctions should be lifted, Coltart replied: “They were largely symbolic, there were never any economic sanctions against Zimbabwe, they were targeted against individual members. Those who imposed these sanctions gave so much notice for example on the financial sanctions that most Zanu PF hierarchy actually got their money out, so they never really had any impact in the first place.

“Ironically, my view now is that sanctions are being used most effectively by Zanu PF. They use sanctions as the reason why they should not implement other clauses in the [power sharing] agreement. So to that extent, I believe sanctions are past their sell-by-date.”

Mugabe’s party has refused to move on key government appointments until sanctions are lifted — referencing a clause in the Global Political Agreement which implores the power sharing partners to campaign for their removal.

Coltart said the European Union and the United States had shown “understandable scepticism” about a power sharing arrangement which retains President Mugabe, but rails against what he sees as a “purist approach” to Zimbabwe – an approach not exercised anywhere else where countries are coming out of conflict situations.

“They are very sceptical, and I understand why they are sceptical,” Coltart said in the interview which aired on Tuesday and Wednesday. “They view Robert Mugabe as a wily politician. I think that they are wrong. I think they are trying to be purist in their approach. They didn’t apply that standard to the Good Friday Agreement [in Northern Ireland] …

“If people in Ireland said they weren’t going to enter into an agreement because of what the IRA had done in the past, there would never have been a Good Friday Agreement and Northern Ireland would be stuck in the mire still.

“If you go back to the Second World War, if you adopted a purist approach, [Winston] Churchill would have never spoken to [Joseph] Stalin. We came to the same point in our history, and you’ve got to put the past aside in many respects to move ahead.

“We had a much bigger danger facing our nation, namely total collapse, degeneration … and to that extent, I don’t believe that the international community has given this arrangement a chance.”

Coltart, a long-time critic of Mugabe – first as a human rights lawyer and later as an MP – defended the pact signed between Mugabe’s Zanu PF party and the two rival MDC factions led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.

“It’s been in many respects a tense relationship. It’s very hard to trust anyone who has been responsible for gross human rights violations,” Coltart, a senior member of Mutambara’s MDC, said of his own personal relationship with the President. “But what applies nationally, applies personally. We had no other viable non-violent option other than to go into this arrangement, and to that extent we have to put history aside and work in the interests of the nation — and that includes working with Robert Mugabe.”

Zimbabwean

By Fungi Kwaramba

21 July 2010

HARARE – Esrom Mukarati 11 (not real name) wakes up everyday and watches his peers going to school. He would dearly love to join them, but his parents do not have money to give him a basic education. As a result he has become a young vendor whose life is tied to selling vegetables.

According to the Minister of Education, Senator David Coltart, thousands of children are in the same boat as Esrom. Their parents are finding it difficult to send them to school and prepare them for a life to come.

“I last went to school in May when schools opened but I was expelled because my parents could not afford the fees,” said Esrom.

Such is the tale of the young boy whose hopes of one day becoming a doctor are fast fading into the oblivion.

But Coltart is well aware of this and is currently in the process of making basic education free to all so that children like Esrom, whose parents are unemployed, will have an equal opportunity with others, at least at primary school level.

According to latest statistics from the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZVAC): Of the pupils of school going age (6-17years), 86 % were attending school, 8% were drop outs, 3% had left school, 2 % were not attending school and 1% had never been to school.

However Coltart does not entirely agree with the ZVAC saying that the statistics are very conservative, in some areas especially in rural areas 75% of students have dropped out of school.

“As the Minister of Education my number one priority is to restore education for all and after that to restore the integrity of the teachers. It does not matter how many text books you have as long as morale is low among the teaching staff then they will not be any progress in restoring basic education,” said Coltart.

“We are currently in breach of the International Convention of Children Rights to which Zimbabwe is a signatory. It says that children should have access to education this has been caused by the fact that the costs of education has been transferred to parents due to underfunding by the state,” he added.

Thousands of teachers mostly of Mathematics, Science and English have left the profession due to the low salaries that the pre-Inclusive Government was offering. While a significant number of the teachers have returned between the period of 2009 and 2010 many students are being expelled from school due to failure to pay the mandatory top up payments that teachers are demanding in order to supplement the salaries that the cash strapped government affords them.

Even though the Government of Zimbabwe has a facility Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) to help poor children like Esrom see through their education; it is now overwhelmed by the number of children who are in need of assistance.

“We need to review BEAM so that all children who need assistance get it; we have more parents who cannot afford education. Ultimately though we will have to reintroduce free education for primary education, however that needs money which the government does not have.

“The education sect has been under funded and that has seen the collapse of education in the country. We have seen the deterioration of the physical buildings at schools, we have also seen a dramatic reduction in the student book ratio,” said Coltart.

However, Coltart said the picture was not all bleak as the Government has already secured $42million of the $52million which his ministry required in order to resuscitate the education sector which has been on a free fall.

“We have started re-introducing basic education. Teachers are going back to school and education material is being distributed to schools. Shortly we will be delivering text books that will see the student to text book ratio dropping to one and then we will move to refurbishing the toilets at schools which are in had shape. Our initial target will be the sanitary conditions so that we will ensure that every school is safe,” he said.

However, for now, children like Esrom will have to wait a little for the Government to re-introduce free education which the minister said has already started to take place in Zimbabwe Primary Schools.

www.isria.com

21 July 2010

Lord Howell, Foreign Office Minister met with David Coltart, Zimbabwe’s Minister for Education, Sports, Art and Culture this morning.

The Ministers discussed the progress that has been made since the formation of the Inclusive Government. Zimbabwe still suffers from rule of law abuses and economic difficulties, but Lord Howell congratulated the reformers, including David Coltart, on the tangible improvements their efforts had brought to the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans. He assured Minister Coltart of the UK’s continuing assistance to help bolster reform and achieve their aims of a stable, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe.

A former human rights lawyer and an MDC-M Senator in Zimbabwe’s Inclusive Government, Mr Coltart has been instrumental in turning around the education sector, encouraging 15,000 teachers to return to work so that schools could re-open and Zimbabwe can regain its reputation as education leaders in Africa.

The UK has helped the Department for International Development along with other donors provided funding so that every primary school child in the country will have a full set of core school books. DFID support has also helped to ensure that over 600,000 orphans and vulnerable children will be able to attend school this year.

British Foreign Office Website

www.fco.gov.uk

20 July 2010

Lord Howell, Foreign Office Minister met with David Coltart, Zimbabwe’s Minister for Education, Sports, Arts and Culture this morning.

The Ministers discussed the progress that has been made since the formation of the Inclusive Government. Zimbabwe still suffers from rule of law abuses and economic difficulties, but Lord Howell congratulated the reformers, including David Coltart, on the tangible improvements their efforts had brought to the lives of ordinary Zimbabweans. He assured Minister Coltart of the UK’s continuing assistance to help bolster reform and achieve their aims of a stable, democratic and prosperous Zimbabwe.

A former human rights lawyer and an MDC-M Senator in Zimbabwe’s Inclusive Government, Mr Coltart has been instrumental in turning around the education sector, encouraging 15,000 teachers to return to work so that schools could re-open and Zimbabwe can regain its reputation as education leaders in Africa.

The UK has helped the Department for International Development along with other donors provided funding so that every primary school child in the country will have a full set of core school books. DFID support has also helped to ensure that over 600,000 orphans and vulnerable children will be able to attend school this year.

Zimbabwean

By Staff Reporter

20 July 2010

NYAMINYAMI – A critical shortage of teachers has left education in Kariba’s Nyaminyami district in tatters. A top official from the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture confirmed there had been a mass exodus of teachers from the district because of poor working conditions and impassable roads that made the areas inaccessible to local towns.

“We have no qualified teachers here and kids are not attending lessons. Trained teachers are shunning the district because the area is inaccessible and lacks basic infrastructure such as electricity and access to clean water,” he said.
Officials revealed most schools where being run by a few temporary teachers.
“The working conditions are pathetic. Government is not doing anything to improve the conditions of service for teachers here,” said a teacher.
Staff also complained that that there was no transport to go business centres to get their salaries. Most buses went only as far as Zvipani and Makandi, so teachers were travelling 30km on paydays to catch a bus to Kariba.
“I am aware that working conditions for teachers in rural areas are generally very poor and I am very sympathetic to the plight of the teachers,” said Education Minister David Coltart.
“Unless we restore the dignity and integrity of the teaching profession in Zimbabwe we will not restore a quality education for all our children. We can only do this if education is once again made government’s top priority and that must be reflected in the amount of money and attention we pay to the education sector.
“I remain committed to doing whatever I can to lift the education sector, and the restoration of the teaching profession is my number one priority.”

Newsday

20 July 2010

By Staff Writers

The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education has thrown a life line to the Zimbabwe Distance Education college (Zedco), owned by Zanu PF Secretary for Education in the politburo, Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, by removing his college from institutions closed for operating illegally.

The former information minister said yesterday he was unaware of the registration rules for colleges and had asked for temporary reprieve to regularise his operations.

“I did not know that I had to register the other two colleges with the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education,” Ndlovu said.

“I admit I was wrong and I am grateful they (officials) have given me an opportunity to properly register the colleges.”

The move by the ministry to accord Ndlovu preferential treatment has been described by other black listed colleges as “political”.

According to a new list published by the ministry at the weekend, Zedco is the only college that has been removed from the list of 106 colleges initially closed for operating illegally.

The institutions were ordered to close shop in accordance with the Manpower Planning and Development Act Chapter 28:02 subsection 1 and stationary instruments 333 of 1996 and 26 of 2001.

“We do not believe that Zedco is the only college that has met the required government conditions. It can only be because it is owned by a Zanu PF official,” said one college official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said in their engagement with the ministry, colleges had discovered that the ministry did not have a secretariat to deal with the issues being raised.

“While we have filed our papers with the ministry, nothing has been done to rectify the problems,” said the official.

Permanent secretary in the ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Washington Mbizvo, could not immediately comment on the issue yesterday as he was said to be in meetings.

In a notice, Mbizvo warned that action would be taken against colleges that continued to operate without licences.

Private colleges have mushroomed in cities and towns with some operating from residential and shopping centres.

Education Sports and Culture David Coltart said government would soon put in place measures to monitor the colleges, most of which were not registered and did not meet minimal requirements of the ministry.

Protracted industrial action at formal schools by teachers has seen parents losing faith in the conventional schools and are instead sending their children to private colleges.

Coltart said there was an urgent need to monitor private colleges to ensure they met minimum education standards.

ZBC

20 July 2010

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister, Senator David Coltart has blasted western countries for maintaining sanctions on Zimbabwe.

Speaking on BBC’s Hardtalk programme on Tuesday, Senator Coltart said the west is wrong in maintaining sanctions on Zimbabwe.

“The are very skeptical… They are wrong. I think that they are trying to be purists in their approach,” he said.

He said the West should give Zimbabwe’s inclusive government a chance to address the numerous socio-economic challenges facing the country.

Senator Coltart’s statement follows calls by the three main political parties in the inclusive government, SADC and the AU for the total removal of the sanctions.

Senator Coltart said although the three main political parties in the global political agreement have not fully resolved their political differences, the three leaders are committed to the inclusive government as there is no viable alternative but to continue working together.

He said: “I don’t think any of us will walk away. We have no viable alternative…if we walk away from this what are we left with? We will no doubt revert to the horrible days of 2008. What choice do we have?”

He also acknowledged and hailed the progress made so far under the inclusive government in areas of education, health and media reforms.

The minister also refuted claims that the indigenisation law seeks to dispossess foreigners of their businesses, saying the amendments to the regulations will ensure that there is stability and growth in the country’s economy.