Sunday News
7 February 2010
Sunday News Reporters

Bulawayo City Councillors have said the rot in the education sector must be nipped in the bud and have called for the arrest of school heads reportedly barring students from attending lessons due to non-payment of tuition fees and levies, Sunday News can reveal.

Schools in Bulawayo have since the beginning of the school term sent away all students who have not fully paid school fees, a move that has been condemned by both Government and parents.

Debating at a full council meeting held at the council chambers last Wednesday, BCC councillors, condemned the move by school authorities, saying the school heads were proving to be impossible and their actions were against both council and Government directives.

The councillors said the school heads should always bear in mind that they were council and Government employees meant to operate as guided by the law.
Last year, 97 school heads from around the country were arrested for defying the Government directive not to bar students from attending lessons because of failure to pay school fees and levies.

Councillor for Ward 11 who is also the chairman of the finance and development committee, Nduna Dladla, said his committee was going to ensure that all heads found barring students from attending lessons at all council run schools would be disciplined for defying the local authority’s directive.

“We are going to ensure that normalcy returns to our schools. What the (school) heads are doing is wrong and illegal. It should not be allowed to continue,’’ he said.
Another councillor said the heads were operating above the parameters of council and it should immediately regain control over its schools.

“Council schools are sending children away and I do not remember us giving such a directive. This means what they are doing is illegal and council should thus descend on these illegal activities,’’ said the deputy mayor, Clr Amen Mpofu.

The deputy mayor said while they appreciated that children were supposed to pay their school fees it was not proper for them to be barred from attending lessons.
He said this gave the council a bad image and put them at loggerheads with the residents.

The councillors have also condemned the payment of teacher incentives saying this further burdened the already troubled parents.

“Council schools should only charge tuition fees and levies, not other charges that are being levied as at the end of the day schools do not benefit from such charges,’’ read part of the latest council minutes.

In an interview last week, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart, condemned the move taken by school heads and urged them to desist from defying the ministry’s policies.

“School heads should desist from taking the law into their own hands. They have no right whatsoever to turn away students as I have always said,’’ said Senator Coltart.

Parents have also condemned the move by the schools to turn away students for failure to pay school fees and teacher incentives.

Last week, students were seen moving out of schools in hordes after being chased from some of the schools.

The move by school heads has prompted parents to call for the Ministry to reintroduce supervision of schools rather than the present scenario where school heads did as they pleased.

Parents said what school heads were doing was detrimental to the children’s future.

“The ministry is always saying it issued out circulars to all schools that no students should be turned away from school but everyday they return home. The minister has to be clear on this issue because (school) heads do as they please,’’ said a parent identified as MaSibanda.

Meanwhile, councillors have given parents the leeway to stagger payment of school fees, a situation that would see the parents paying the fees monthly rather than making one payment for the whole term.

According to the latest council report, it was noted that there was a need for parents to stagger fees payment as most of the parents were evidently facing financial constraints.

The councillors also noted that parents still owed council a total of US$797 343 and they were in the process of issuing out summons to the owing parents in a bid to recover the monies.

Zimbabwean
Written by Paul Ndlovu
Wednesday, 3 February 2010

HARARE – A lack of funds has hindered the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture’s plans to set up a framework to tighten the regulation of levies,a move that has prompted the minister to seek assistance from the World Bank.

David Coltart admitted that his ministry had not made much progress, as there were shortages of funds.

“The ministry has no money and is waiting for the provision of funds and technical assistance. I have asked for assistance from the World Bank,” he said.

Coltart said he was in the process of looking for a lawyer who would assist him in his mission.

Last year the ministry said it would work on new laws that would foster accountability and encourage payment of fees and levies. The ministry said the statutory instruments were supposed to tone down the abuse related to the paying of incentives to teachers.

That came as part of a solution when parents raised complaints about the way schools were demanding incentives. Schools also claimed parents were taking advantage of the situation by not paying any fees at all.

The minister said that although the plans were still skeletal, parents were welcome to contribute to the law making process.

He said parents could write to him and he would consider their views, as they were the ones who promote education by sending their children to school.

“I have set up a committee with trade unions under the guidance of a principal director of Human Resources in the Ministry. It is looking at the whole issue of fees, levies and incentives. I assure you we are looking at the finer details of that,” he said.

VOA
By Peta Thornycroft
1 February 2010

Police in Zimbabwe are warning they do not have enough money to feed people in holding cells around the country. The whole justice system in Zimbabwe is threatened by lack of adequate resources.

Although fewer people are being arrested now than in previous years, the police say they do not have enough money to feed those held in custody at police stations.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena said if arrested people are not given food by relatives or from sympathetic policemen paying for food out of their own pockets, detainees are going hungry. He said policemen, like many other civil servants, are only earning about $150 a month.

Bvudzijena said the worst affected among those people arrested and held in rural police districts. He said some charitable organizations helped feed suspects in urban areas like Harare, but it is never enough.

The assistant commissioner said the police force received less than 10 percent of the funds it requested in the last budget. He said many police vehicles no longer work and the police infrastructure is disintegrating fast.

Insiders in the Department of Justice say it is also affected with a shortage of prosecutors, magistrates, and other staff servicing the courts. This is leading to longer stays in jail for prisoners awaiting trial.

Former Commercial Farmers Union president Trevor Gifford and a colleague were supposed to appear in court Friday in the eastern city Mutare. But there was no staff to process them and they were held in custody over the weekend.

They were arrested on contempt of court charges because, their lawyers say, they tried to deliver a High Court order to a presiding magistrate.

Other Zimbabwe government ministries are also short of cash. Education minister David Coltart said Sunday his allocation is $1 per child at school per month. He said this is a shocking statistic affecting three million school children.

Finance Minister Tendai Biti is raising about $90 million a month to run Zimbabwe and there are few indications revenue is going to increase.

The Herald
1 February 2010
By Felex Share

A major shake-up is looming at the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council this month in a move that will see a new board taking over from the Professor Phineus Makhurane-led board as Government moves to revamp operations at the examinations body.

The term of office of the current board officially ended in 2006 although the members are still in office.

This is in violation of the Zimsec Act that stipulates that the chairman of the board must be a serving Vice Chancellor of a university.

However, the current chairman, Prof Makhurane, ceased to be a Vice Chancellor of the National University of Science and Technology on June 30, 2004.

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart last Friday said Government will shortly appoint on a new board to run the troubled examinations body.

He, however, declined to disclose the names of the proposed new board members.

Minister Coltart said “only a few” members of the old board would be retained in the new board.

Minister Coltart expressed concern that parents had lost faith in Zimsec as an examination institution, opting to register their children with the University of Cambridge.

“People have lost faith, thus as a ministry, we are focusing on restoring confidence and this could be done by fully revamping operations at the local examinations board,” he said.

Some schools have opted out of the local examination syndicate amid reports that in Bulawayo, schools scrapped Ndebele lessons in favour of Zulu, which is offered at Cambridge.

He said some members in the outgoing board were ineligible to hold positions at Zimsec according to Zimbabwean laws.

Standard
By Bertha Shoko
31 January 2010

CIVIL servants will hold make-or-break talks with government negotiators on Tuesday amid warnings a crippling strike is imminent. The meeting comes a week after the 14-day strike ultimatum issued by civil servants passed without any action.

Education Minister David Coltart and his Public Service counterpart Eliphas Mukonoweshuro failed to take the civil servants’ grievances to cabinet because it has not been sitting.

The government workers want their salaries increased four-fold from the current US$150 for the lowest paid civil servant.

Raymond Majongwe, the Progressive Teachers’ Union (PTUZ) secretary general said if Tuesday’s meeting of the National Joint Negotiating Council (NJNC) does not yield positive results teachers will down tools.

“We are pleading with government to show a bit of commitment when we meet on Tuesday,” he said.
Their members, he said, were growing impatient with the unending negotiations.

Coltart yesterday said in the various meetings he has held with the unions they expressed their unhappiness over government’s continued lavish spending when it says it cannot improve their salaries.

“Their concern has been the cost of local and foreign travel by cabinet and many other things so this has made them believe that there is money out there somewhere,” he said.

“They want everyone to tighten their belts because of the economic crisis.”

Coltart said he had also held discussions with Finance Minister Tendai Biti who has agreed to meet representatives of civil servants when he returns from the United States.

The minister will also brief cabinet when it resumes its meetings.

However, Mukonoweshuro appeared to pour cold water over Coltart’s optimism saying the government was just broke.

“What we have here is a case where there isn’t that financial fiscus space on the part of government,” he said.

“Civil servants will have to be a bit more patient while government looks into their concerns.”

Sunday Mail
31 January 2010
Sunday Mail Reporter

Parents wishing to enroll their children for kindergarten in Harare will have to think twice as it has emerged that pre-schools in the city are demanding as much as US$600 per term in fees.

A Sunday Mail survey last week revealed that the cost of pre-schooling is much higher than that of higher and tertiary education. First year students at the University of Zimbabwe are paying US$350 per semester while city colleges are charging about US$50 per month.

It emerged that most private pre-schools are charging between US$200 and US$600 per term on top of transport fees and groceries.

Sunderland pre-school in Belvedere requires a child to pay US$200 per month while Sunrise pre-school in Milton Park is asking for US$480 per term.

A primary or high school student attending a government school in high density areas pays between US$5 and US$20 per term.

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart said most pre-schools were privately owned and did not have fees set for them by the Ministry.
Pre-schools are, however, registered and approved by the Ministry.

“There are no set fees for these private pre-schools, that is why they are charging high levies. Government pre-schools are quite affordable and we set reasonable fees for them.” he said.

“Once the Ministry approves a pre- school, the school enters into a contract with the parents under which they agree on certain fees,” said Sen. Coltart.
Those operating pre-schools are believed to be making a lot of money from the business and this accounts for the huge increase in the number of the schools over the past few years.

As a strategy to help parents, the Government has since introduced Grade Zero classes for pupils where they are taught creative skills.

A parent who spoke to The Sunday Mail last week, Mrs Tendai Chireru, said the majority of these kindergarten operators were charging exorbitant prices considering the age of the children.

“These operators are milking parents countrywide since they demand groceries and cash some of which I believe is diverted for personal use,” said Mrs Chireru.

A Harare based headmaster who spoke on condition of anonymity said parents were the ones to blame as they were choosing elitist kindergarten homes.

“Parents should bring their children to Government schools since we have the same qualified and experienced staff as those operating in private kindergarten homes,” he said.

The Herald
29 January 2010

Harare — Government should computerise the database of its employees to weed out ghost workers that are fleecing the State of thousands of dollars; Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart said yesterday.

Minister Coltart said his ministry was making efforts to keep a computer-based list of teachers in the service to make it easier for the Government to compile a record of teachers working in the country.

“Government has been duped of a lot of cash through ghost workers. But if we were computer networked, thousands of dollars would have been saved,” he said.

There was need, he said, to link Government head offices with provincial and district offices to allow a smooth flow of information.

Information is currently transmitted manually.

“A person in another province should be well informed of what is happening at their head office. “The manual system we have been using for the past years has resulted in Government losing a lot of money. We must have a situation whereby every school will be linked to the ministry,” he said.

The major challenge, Minister Coltart said, was mobilising the necessary resources and bringing in the technical expertise.

“The process is expensive, but I have spoken to officials from World Bank and some donor agencies that have agreed to chip in financially,” he said.

Zimbabwe BlackBook
26 January 2010

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s Public Service Minister Eliphas Mukonoweshuro is due to hold make-or-break talks with civil servants in a last-ditch bid to avert a general strike.
Workers have set a strike date of next Tuesday unless their demands for higher salaries are met.

Ministers are desperate to avert a general strike, which would take Zimbabwe back to the bad old days of the last decade.

Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, who is Minister of Public Service and a member of Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC, is scheduled to meet union officials on Tuesday.

Many teachers are on a go-slow at the moment because their salaries are only around R1500. They want four times that amount.

The head of the Progressive Teachers Union, Raymond Majongwe, told Eyewitness News he had a meeting with Prime Minister Tsvangirai.

He said he is hopeful some sort of compromise can be reached.

However the cash-strapped government is in a difficult position.

Education Minister David Coltart’s suggestion was to ask state utilities to cut their fees so that teachers’ salaries are not gobbled up quite as quickly.

Sunday Mail
24 January 2010
From Bulawayo Bureau

At least 10 000 teachers are needed nationwide as it emerged that there is a critical shortage of the educators in schools amid revelations that the re-engagement system that the Government embarked on to bring back to the fold tutors who had left is tedious and frustrating.

It has also emerged that the country is in dire need of teachers who teach Science subjects, Mathematics and English, something that is threatening to cripple the pride of the country’s education sector.

In an interview on Friday, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Senator David Coltart confirmed the shortage of teachers in most of the country’s schools.
He said the country needed an estimated 10 000 teachers adding, that it was disheartening to note that some rural schools were left with very few or no teachers at all.
“We have had an establishment of some140 000 teachers in the country, but currently we have an estimated 80 000, a number that is, of course, far too few if we are to have the required number of teachers for every class
.
“There are reports coming to the ministry from various provinces in the country that some rural schools hardly have any teachers to attend to the students and such a situation in our schools is not healthy .

“An estimated 10 000 teachers is therefore required to get the country’s education system working again, but we are not so much concerned about the quantity but the quality.

“As it stands right now, there is an acute shortage of teachers for Science subjects, Mathematics and English which are the most important subjects, something that has seen us shifting the temporal teaching policy to ensure that we maintain the quality of education with the available human resources,” said Sen Coltart.

He confirmed that there were problems dogging the re-engagement system and said his ministry was doing everything in its power to ensure that all the bottlenecks that the education sector had been experiencing were dealt with.

Re-engaged

Minister Coltart further highlighted that out of an estimated 20 000 teachers who left the profession in the last two years due to the pressing economic environment, about 2 400 teachers applied to come back into service and were re-engaged last year, but have not been receiving their salaries for the better part of last year, something the unions have been making noise about.

He however, reiterated that he had since met the union leaders and satisfactorily resolved all the anomalies that were deterring and frustrating those who wanted to be considered for reengagement.

Sen Coltart highlighted that while the issue of getting the education sector on its feet boarders on remuneration, there was a general consensus among the teachers that their demands were fueled by the rates that the parastatals were charging.

He said it was encouraging that the educators understood that the country’s financial position was still low to meet their expectations and were querying the wisdom of parastatals demanding exorbitant amounts of money that were far above the regional standards from the consumers of their services while they were aware that the Government was not paying such kind of money.

The Minister would not, however, be drawn into revealing the finer details of the meeting he had with the Minister of Finance Mr Tendai Biti during the course of the week, preferring to say they have a constructive discussion on the issue of remuneration with the hope of getting back the education system of the country to its glorious past.

There are reports that teachers from rural areas are leaving their stations in droves to look for places in urban areas where they are paid better incentives while some are going to private schools.

The policy of incentives was introduced to try and cushion the teachers against the meagre earnings they were getting.