SWRadio Africa
15 April 2010

In response to calls from residents, over the on-going education crisis, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association has invited the Minister of Education, Sports, Art and Culture, David Coltart to address residents. Residents in Bulawayo have passed complaints about the state of the country’s education system. It has seen teachers perpetually on strike, school development committees and parents at loggerheads while schoolchildren, like the proverbial grass when elephants fight, loafing around as if education had become extinct.

Minister Coltart is expected to explain the matter of teachers’ incentives that has been the cause of wrangling between, not only parents and school authorities, but teachers themselves. The minister has previously defended the payment of incentives that are used to motivate teachers as they are underpaid by the government.

However, one wonders what then his response will be after reports of clashes between parents and teachers that have become the order of the day in the city. The minister is also expected to justify or explain the unchanged examination fees that were announced recently. A number of schools failed to register candidates last year because parents were unable to pay the exam fees as they were too high.

More importantly though, Minister Coltart will receive suggestions from residents and stakeholders to help him chart the way forward and solve issues bedeviling the country’s education system.

The minister is set to address residents and other stakeholders on 17 April 2010 at the Large City Hall at 0900hrs. All residents are invited. This is a continuation of the
service providers’ consultative meetings that the association has been holding across the city. Like in other meetings, the purpose of this meeting is to provide a platform
for residents to air their views and concerns.

Financial Gazette
Thursday 15 April 2010
By Clemence Manyukwe, Staff Reporter

A UNITED Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) US$13 million tender for the local printing of 2, 6 million primary school textbooks has sparked controversy with some publishers calling for its suspension, citing irregularities. The tendering process saw Longman Zimbabwe being awarded the tender last Thursday after donors’ availed funds as part of the Education Transition Fund (ETF) launched by government last year that will see 13 million primary school textbooks being printed by year end.

Information obtained by The Financial Gazette indicates that 20 percent of 13 million textbooks — 2,6 million — earmarked for distribution to impoverished local primary schools, would be printed locally with the remainder supplied from outside the country.

Disgruntled publishers this week petitioned the Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, alleging that the tendering process lacked transparency as adjudication results were not made public prior to awarding the contract as was the norm in a public tender.

Yesterday, UNICEF described as unfounded the allegations of irregularities saying the UN agency follows strict international guidelines in procurement, based on competitive tendering.

The UN agency said the process was endorsed by government and donors, adding that it was critical for Zimbabweans to understand that the ETF will bring immense benefits to its children.

In their petition to Senator Coltart, the publishers claimed that the least cost approach was not observed resulting in publishers who were cheaper losing out on the contract.

“It is obvious the award of tender entrenches a monopoly that is going to be harmful to students taking into account the magnitude and the impact of the decision. (a) Only one publisher will remain in the country taking into account that the other two will have no business to sustain themselves for the coming three years, so will eventually close. (b) Only one product will be available to students irrespective of how good or bad it is thereby restricting our children to only one thought and influence. (c) The removal of competition and entrenchment of a monopoly will ensure that there will be no incentive or economic argument to force the remaining publisher to improve or upgrade products going to schools. (d) The tender award will obviously cause the two other publishers to shut down because the primary school section is the breadwinner for all publishers. The closure will result in retrenchments.”

The tender controversy has also sucked in printers. In a two-hour meeting yesterday, printers resolved to pressure Coltart to cancel the tender. The printers said they have been contracted to do the work at below printing cost, in what they suspect is a ploy to force them out so that the contract wo-uld be given to a South African Printer connected to Longman Zi-mbabwe.

In an interview yesterday, Coltart said he had not seen the petition, but added that all queries must be addressed to UNICEF, which handled the process.

The Minister, however, added that UNICEF rules were used in the tender and donors who provided funds had laid down specific requirements.

On the other hand UNICEF spokesperson, Tsitsi Singizi, dismissed charges that the least cost approach was not observed.

“We refute these allegations,” said Singizi. “As UNICEF, our emphasis is of course placed on getting the best value for Zimbabwe’s children. “This means selection of the current supplier was based on price offered, payment terms, demonstrated compliance to specifications, technical capacity, delivery time, proof of printed textbooks and use by schools and utilisation of local capacity. The selection was also conducted in accordance with Ministry of Education guidance on textbook subject and grade quality and from the allowed MoESAC (Education Ministry) list of books,” she said.

She said the UN agency was concerned about local industries, a development that would see its local procurement value for this year standing at an estimated value of between US$10 million and US$15 million.

“Our preoccupation remains to ensure that every Zim-babwean child has access to a full set of textbooks and the required stationary and this pogramme will do that, ensuring that textbooks ratios are brought down to a pupil to text book ratio 1:1,” said the UNICEF spokesperson.

Longman Zimbabwe’s managing director who was identified only as Madondo said she cannot comment on allegations by printers on the below printing cost issue saying she had not attended their meeting.

“I can’t comment because I was not in that meeting. I am a publisher, not a printer. Please direct your questions to the printers.”

Radiovop.com
April 14, 2010

Harare, – The Minister of Education, Sports and Culture, David Coltart, says donors have told him that they will not support the payment of teacher salaries because Zimbabwe is a bottomless pit.

Coltart said : “Donors have told me that this country is a bottomless pit and they will not support anything until the GPA is fully implemented.

“They will not give us a cent even for teachers salaries. They have however said they are willing to give us 13 million text books for primary school children next year. We will only get money to pay teachers in the 2011 National budget.”

Coltart was responding to enquiries from members of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZIMTA) who are meeting in Harare until Friday this week.

About 300 ZIMTA members are in Harare from all over Zimbabwe.

Raymond Majongwe from the aggressive Progressive Teachers Alliance of Zimbabwe (PTAZ) paid a surprise visit to the packed conference held in Harare.

ZIMTA President Tendai Chikowore told Coltart that teachers were very unhappy and that government was lying to them about salaries.

She said money was disappearing from Chiadzwa and yet it could be used to pay cash strapped teachers countrywide.

“I will look into the matter,” Coltart said in reply. “I know you are very unhappy but there is no money in Zimbabwe right now.”

Zimbabwean teachers are earning about USD 150 a month, which the government calls an allowance. The government says it will only be able to pay a decent
salary to civil servants once its coffers have improved. Most western countries have denied assisting Zimbabwe financially, demanding the full implementation of the GPA and a stop to human rights abuses.

Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, recently admitted that Zimbabwe was on its own as no-one was interested in lending it money. The International financier, International Monetary Fund, said it will resume lending Zimbabwe money once it clears all its debts.

The Zimbabwean
By Staff Reporter
Monday, 12 April 2010

BULAWAYO – The continued criminal persecution of artists illustrates that the country still has a long way to go in dealing with the issue of national healing, David Coltart, the Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister has said.

Coltart told The Zimbabwean that the recent arrest of Bulawayo based artist, Owen Maseko and Okay Machisa, the ZimRights director in Harare, for holding exhibitions showcasing the country’s gross human rights violations, was unfortunate at a time when the country was talking of national healing.

“Their arrest illustrates that there are major issues in our country which we need to deal with. It is unfortunate that he was treated in this way because criminal prosecutions will not heal our nation.

“This only goes to show that we have a long way to go in so far as national healing is concerned,” Coltart said in an interview.

Coltart added that only dialogue would deal with the issue of national healing.

Maseko, a resident artist at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo was arrested for putting up a solo exhibition showcasing the Gukurahundi disturbances.
The state alleged that Maseko’s painting were likely to cause hatred or engender feelings of hostility towards or cause contempt or ridicule to the President of insult the President in person or in respect of his office.

ZimRights also planned to have a photo exhibition entitled Reflections.

The purpose of the exhibition was to share photographs of the 2008 election period – including the violence of these elections and the economic hardships of these times – in order to remind Zimbabweans of where we have come from, and to prompt reflection on where we are going as a country.

However, later that day, police descended on the gallery and arrested Machisa and confiscated the pictures.

Zimrights last week said it plans to take the exhibition to rural areas.

The Herald
Opinion
By Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe
12 April 2010

Harare — “EDUCATION for all” has always been one of the war cries of the Government since 1980.

Today, 30 years later, several international bodies including the United Nations agree that Zimbabwe has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. The economic meltdown and other problems associated with the sanctions regime over the past few years have unfortunately reversed many achievements in the battle to bring quality education to all.

However, the introduction of the multi-currency system has seen many schools recover as they can now afford to buy textbooks, retain staff and maintain and improve their facilities.

But obscured in this apparent boom, are some children in medium-income suburbs of Harare, like Hatfield and Waterfalls, who are struggling to get an education.

Chipo (not her real name) wakes up at six every morning. She has a plate of porridge before walking to school. On most days this is the only food that she has until she comes back home at two. Lunch then comprises of a few slices of plain bread and a cup of black tea. At school, she is relieved that no one sends her back home to collect money for school fees.

It is just not there.

After her simple lunch, she washes her single uniform and prays that it will not rain so that it can dry before morning. She then has to do her homework before evening, because if there is a power cut, she will not have a light to work by. Supper is often sadza and plain green vegetables. Chipo then goes to sleep in the single room which she shares with her widowed vendor mother, her two unemployed aunts and several cousins of who are also in school.

None of the children have had their fees paid since the beginning of last year.

Chipo is just one of the sizeable numbers of almost destitute children in the middle-income suburb of Hatfield in Harare. From a collation of the figures for the three primary and two secondary schools in the area, of the total enrolment of about 4000 children, almost 600 need assistance with their school fees.

The Government program of Basic Education Assistance Module is helping about 100 and 150 depend on churches and other well-wishers for their education.

Chipo is one of the rest, who limp along, never knowing if they will be able to complete the term while still at school or if they will be forced to drop out. Chipo’s mother, fears for her daughter’s future. “I just cannot get the money to pay for her fees. I am afraid that if she stops going to school she will become a prostitute.” She lamented.

The BEAM pamphlet states that the primary is to “reduce the number of children dropping out of . . . school due to economic hardships.”

The pamphlet also shows that BEAM is supported by Unicef with funding and technical assistance from seven large international organisations including the European Commission and Sida.

But the statistics on the ground show that the programme is overwhelmed and the net is failing to catch a large number of children, especially in the urban areas.
At the unveiling of the Education Transition fund to resuscitate BEAM late last year, the minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Paurina Mpariwa revealed that BEAM requires about US$35 million to cover every applicant.

But in a Press statement a few days later, her deputy, Tracey Mutinhiri, revealed that only US$20 million had been secured for funds for term one 2010.
That US$15million discrepancy is what stands between Chipo and others like her and a certain future.

In March 2009, the minister of Education, Arts, Sports and Culture, Senator David Coltart invited parents and guardians of children in the high densities and rural areas to apply for aid through BEAM.

“They must apply for a means test and we will look into their case,” he stated.

From this statement, it can be inferred that the assumption was that children from low and medium density suburbs were classified as not needing aid.

The minister went on to reveal that the schools are graded into three categories, p1/s1, p2/s2 and p3/s3. The p denotes primary and the s is for secondary.
Former group A and private schools fall into the first and second categories.

These are considered to be less vulnerable than their rural and farm counterparts in the third category.

The distribution of funds reflects this presumed status quo and the urban medium and low densities end up with a relatively smaller piece of the pie.

The BEAM pamphlet also states that a local selection committee chooses from all the applicants as to who will receive aid. The criterion for selection includes “The source of income and health status of the head of household/breadwinner.”

Chipo’s mother was adjudged to be an entrepreneur who at 33 is relatively young. She does not suffer from any chronic illness.

The chairperson of one School Development Committee in the area who declined to be named said that they are struggling to meet their targets as a school because of the poor children in the area.

“We make budgets based on 100 percent payment of levies. Because some of that money does not come through, we are failing to buy enough textbooks for all the children. The parents who have paid become disgruntled and accuse the administration of misappropriating funds,”he complained.

On one hand, the ministry has expressly forbidden schools from sending away pupils who can not afford to pay the fees and levies. On the other hand, BEAM and the other good Samaritans are not covering all the applicants.

The relatively higher fees also mean that the same amount of money from BEAM covers fewer children in these schools than it would cover in the rural area.

“A hundred dollars at a rural school where each child pays $10 per term educates ten children. Here it can only pay for one and a half children,” said one school head.
Tuition fees are set by the state and currently stand at $10 per pupil per term for former group A primary schools, and $20 per child in the secondary schools.
The levies are decided upon by majority vote of those who have children and wards attending the school.

As most people in the area are fairly affluent, the levy figures are fairly high, ranging from US$30 to US$120 dollars per child per term.

“It does not appear to be much to those who are earning good salaries. But I make a profit of less than US$40 a week. From that I must feed six people, pay the rent and pay utilities. There is just nothing left over to pay school fees.” Chipo’s mother put forward her case.

“I think we need to screen intake on an income basis. Those who can not afford to live here must go to the rural areas where they pay less. “I do not see why my child should have no books while those who have not paid a single cent enjoy the benefits of my sweat.

“I am not rich and I sacrifice to pay these fees,” charged a woman who identified herself as Mrs Sibanda whose child is in a primary school in the area.

However, all the schools indicated that this is not a viable solution as they are bound to register children on a first come first served basis without discrimination.

That is how they end up with children who cannot afford to pay the levies that the school development committees will have voted for.

The Greek Orthodox Church opened a private college in January. A church official revealed that of the enrolment figure of 220, 91 pupils are church members and have all their fees paid for through the church. Chipo is one of the 40other pupils at the school who are failing to raise school fees.

The rest of the children pay fees like in any other school, but the church has gone further and is even assisting some pupils who are not members of their congregation. But the figures are diluted by the fact that some of the children are coming from as far afield as Mbare and Chitungwiza. This reduces the number of children in the area who are actually getting help.

Prospect Primary, Hatfield Primary and High schools are all state institutions.

St John’s Retreat was established by the Anglican Church, but the church says they no longer have an involvement in the running of the school.

The expansion of BEAM to take in their plight appears to be the only answer for Chipo and all other children like her; the destitute suffering in the middle of plenty.

The Standard
By Davison Maruziva
11 April 2010

TOPICS for this year’s Cover to Cover Short Story Writing competition were unveiled last week and the contest is expected to run until the end of May 2010. The launch of this year’s topics was held at the new offices of the British Council in Cork Road, near the South African Embassy. The British Council is one of the major partners of The Standard in running the competition. It provides both technical support and prize money for the awards.

The other major partners in the Cover to Cover Short Story Writing Competition are Stanbic Bank, the World Bank, the Culture Fund, World Vision, Nestle, and Meikles Hotel. They were all represented at the launch.

Rajiv Bendre, the Director of the British Council, in welcoming guests to the function spoke of the Council’s commitment to nurturing young talent and its support to Zimbabwe’s education sector.

Senator David Coltart, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, in declaring his ministry’s support for initiatives such as the Cover to Cover short story competition, spoke of the challenges facing the education sector in Zimbabwe.

The initiative, he said, was helping make more reading books available in schools. In 2008 The Standard published an anthology titled Children Writing Zimbabwe, based on the best stories from entries into the competition. Several thousands of copies of the anthology were given to the Ministry of Education for distribution to schools.

Raphael Khumalo, the Group CEO of Alpha Media Holdings, which publishes The Standard, said he hoped the relative peace being enjoyed would enable school children in provinces such as Mashonaland Central, East and the Midlands to take part in this year’s competition.

The level of political violence and hostility towards privately-owned newspapers especially by Zanu PF militias made it difficult for publications which carried details of the competition to penetrate the provinces. Consequently there was pronounced absence of participation by children in those regions of the country.

Entries will be accepted during April and May, with the cut-off date being May 31 2010. Judges will process and assess the entries during June and July, with the awards function likely to be held during August/ September school holidays.

Entries will also be acceptable through our countrywide agents.

The Cover to Cover Short Story Writing Competition has been one of the most exciting initiatives we have witnessed in recent years.

It proved several things: that there is an enormous interest among young people to write and tell us about what they think; that there are good people and organisations, such as the partners, who see value in the initiative; and thirdly it proved that even during Zimbabwe’s darkest moments, it was possible to spark the creative imagination of young people.

Since the launch of the competition, four years ago the competition has seen the numbers of participating students rising and the quality of the submissions quite startling.

The following are the topics discussed and the suggested age groups:

Grade VI – VII

Write a story based on this topic…
l It happened in the school garden;
l The funniest sports day at my school; and
l The earthquake.

Form I & II

Write a story based on …
l “I wish I had never been involved in the first place…” ;
l “A disastrous match…” ; and
l “… The forest fire took a turn for the worst…”

Form III & IV

Write a story based on …
l “The community can still not get over the discovery…” ;
l “The audience screamed for more…”; and
l “I thought my life had just ended…”

Form V & VI

Write a story based on the following:
l “…Then everything ended so abruptly…”;
l The US dollar…;
l Our representative…; and
A cure has been discovered….

RadioVOP
April 6, 2010

Harare, – The Attorney General’s office has declined to prosecute MDC treasurer general Roy Bennett on charges of holding to maize nine years ago in matter that has been described as persecution rather prosecution.

Bennett was last week served with fresh summons last week at the High Court where he is on treason trial and he was supposed to appear before a Chipinge magistrate for breaching the Grain Marketing Board Act.

Chief Law Officer Chris Mutangadura in the AG’s office on Tuesday said the AG’s office is no longer pursuing the matter on the grounds that there was no justifiable reason why the matter was not heard in 2001 when the summons were issued.

“We are not going to pursue that matter at the moment. We have told Bennett’s legal practitioners to wait to hear from us on the way forward. What we need to check now is who was holding on to those summons because this is a straight forward case which could have been dealt with back then,” said Mutangadura.

Bennett’s lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa of Mtetwa and Nyambirai said they approached the AG’s office to intervene after realizing that the trial was not going to go ahead.

“What we did last was to approach the AG (Johannes Tomana) to intervene because we had not been offered the docket and the witness statements. The AG agreed that there was no need for Roy Bennett to travel all the way to Chipinge when we knew that the trial will not proceed,” said Mtetwa.

She said the AG said he will make a determination after going through the docket which “he is yet to receive from police officers from Chipinge”.

The charges against Bennett arose after he allegedly violated the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) Act for failing to declare 92, 289 metric tones of maize to the authorities nine years ago.

The State alleges that on October 22, 2001 and at Charleswood Estate Chimanimani Roy Leslie Bennett wrongfully and unlawfully was found in possession of 92, 289 metric tones of maize which he did not declare to the authorities in terms of the GMB act.

According to the Constitution of Zimbabwe any person charged with a criminal offence shall be accorded a fair hearing within a reasonable time.

Therefore it is a fundamental breach of a person’s human rights if prosecutions are not brought expeditiously against a person accused of crime. If there is a delay a person accused of a crime may not, for example, be able to call witnesses in his defence.

Meanwhile David Coltart, secretary for legal Affairs in the smaller Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction and Education Minister was quoted by the Prime Minister’s Website condemning the move to prosecute Bennett on charges that happened nine years ago.

“In short it is not open to the police to bring charges now when they should have been brought years ago when the crime was allegedly discovered. The police cannot keep charges locked away in a drawer to be brought out at an “appropriate” moment. If a crime has been committed by a person known to the police then charges should be brought immediately against that person. Accordingly the prosecution of Senator Bennett at this late stage appears to be a clear breach of section 18 of the Constitution. The Attorney General has a duty to explain to the public why it is that this prosecution was not brought earlier. If he cannot do so then the public will assume that there has in fact been a breach of section 18 and a denial of a fundamental right to Senator Bennett.”

Sunday News
4 April 2010
By Vincent Gono

THE just ended school term was a huge waste as no learning took place at most public schools amid reports that some teachers forced children to sleep in class during lessons as they continued with their sit-in for better salaries.

In interviews last week, parents and students accused the Government of showing a non-committal attitude towards resuscitating the ailing education delivery system that has been on a free-fall over the past years . The said unless something was done to resolve the teachers, Public Service Commission stalemate there was dangers that the situation would deteriorate further during the second term.

It also emerged that some pupils at various primary schools were forced to sleep while others were being given assignments to try to maintain a semblance of order and reduce noise. The teacher however did not bother to mark given assignments that were a daily diet for pupils.

The fall of standards of education in public schools has also seen the emergence and sprouting of private colleges that are charging amounts beyond the reach of many average earners.

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, acknowledged that the country’s education sector was a national crisis insisting that the situation that prevailed last term was unlikely to improve in the short term, as insufficient money has been made available to pay teachers.

He insisted that there was little the Government could do, as there was no fiscal space to allow payment of salaries that the teachers were demanding.

He confirmed that there was little learning in schools this term owing to a myriad of problems dogging the sector chief among them the crippling strike by the teachers.

Senator Coltart said the challenge they face now was to try and recover the time that was lost urging the nation to appreciate that there was a slight improvement in the situation compared to that of last year.

“It is true that there hasn’t been much learning this term because of the strike by the teachers. That there is a lot of time lost is a fact that we cannot dispute and we are trying to put everything in place to recover the time lost. While it has to be stressed that the Government had no money people should appreciate that this year’s learning was better compared to last year. I have raised the concerns in Cabinet and as soon as there is fiscal space reasonable wages and salaries will be put in place. As of now it is difficult for me to deliver and rehabilitate the sector as there was insufficient budget allocation,” he said.

Senator Coltart added that textbooks would be made available to schools in the country as part of efforts to revive the education delivery system but conceded that textbooks alone could not complete the rehabilitation process if not complemented by human resources.

He said while the Government was working out something teachers needed to be patient.

Parents interviewed said the school term that ended on Thursday was nothing but a waste of resources and time as nothing substantive was done in the classrooms with some of the schools not even bothering to demand school fees and levies, as a result.

They said the just ended school term that was punctuated by a prolonged teacher’s strike which later turned into a sit-in until the end of the term was a pointer to the reluctance by the Government to rectify the anomalies that have been dogging the sector for almost half a decade now.

Parents urged the Government to work on restoring the country’s education system to its past glory. They expressed fear that if nothing was done the ugly state of affair would spill over to the next school term.

“My child was punished for opening his eyes when they were being forced to sleep in class by their teacher. They were not doing anything that justifies the amounts of money that we have paid. I think it’s high time parents should take it upon themselves to see to it that their children are getting something out of school as opposed to the raw deal that we have been subjected to by the Government.

The just ended term was one whose time was thrown to the dogs and it should be borne in mind that time lost will never be recovered,” said a concerned parent on condition of anonymity.

He lashed out at school teachers in public schools for their continued demand for incentives saying they were not doing their duties to the satisfaction of their paymasters — the parents.

The angry parent called for an end to incentives saying teachers should not be paid for forcing children to sleep in class or doing home work.

Mrs Nokuthula Chuma of Pumula North said it was unfortunate that the country’s education had reverted to the colonial past where it was a preserve of a few individuals who could afford it.

She said those with children attending public schools who were in the majority were the ones suffering the brunt of the slowly but surely decaying education delivery system while a few who afford to pay private schools enjoy the education.

“What it means is that the poor can no longer send their children to school. Education is now a preserve for the rich minority who can afford the private school levies and fees. The system is now reminiscent of the colonial era where the majority was denied the right to education. We need some semblance of order and seriousness on the part of the Inclusive Government,” she said.