Some schools are in areas characterised by violence, drug abuse and moral degeneration. For its part, the department of basic education has enacted a Guide to Drug Testing in South African Schools and School and Regulations For Safety Measures at Public Schools to ensure that our schools are safer. (Jekesai Njikizana/AFP)
When Covid-19 forced schools to shut down for more than two years, Sithembiso Mkhwebu began tutoring her three primary school-going children at home.
They had previously attended a private school in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo, but when Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and schools fully reopened their doors early this year, Mkhwebu was informed that she owed the school thousands of United States dollars in school fees.
“I was shocked,” said Mkhwebu who, like many other parents had assumed that school closures meant no tuition fees would be paid. Some private schools however insisted that the fees were justified because they had provided online lessons for learners.
For Mkhwebu, the demand was the final stroke in a country where salaries are dismally low, with the pay for government employees, in particular, failing to keep up with galloping inflation.
What began as a temporary response to the lockdowns that came with the pandemic, forcing children to do their lessons at home, for Mkhwebu morphed into something that now resembles permanence. But whereas in other parts of the world homeschooling is backed up by online classes with tutorials from accredited overseas institutions, hers was a largely do-it-yourself venture.
“I decided to continue homeschooling my children. When I can afford it, I pay a tutor to come and but it’s been particularly tough,” she said.
Homeschooling is taking root as more and more parents withdraw their children from formal classes, citing escalating tuition costs stemming from inflation and a weak local currency.
The government says charging fees in foreign currency is illegal, but private schools have found a way to navigate those restrictions by charging exorbitant fees in local currency, pegged on what the education ministry says are illegal parallel market exchange rates.
There was public uproar in May when some private schools hiked fees into the millions of Zimbabwe dollars with no effective push-back from the government.
Tymon Fuyane, a trained mechanic, says he has agreed with his wife to homeschool their two children after withdrawing them from a private school.
“I did not think it was proper to send them to a government school as we all know there is no learning there,” Fuyane told the Mail & Guardian. “My wife collects all the material she can get, books, pens, crayons and follows a syllabus she shares with other mothers who have children attending formal classes.”
Parents are however finding that homeschooling is no easy feat. “It hasn’t been easy as you can imagine having to attend to other domestic commitments and still ensure the children are doing their school work,” said Mkhwebu, whose husband works outside the country.
Educationists and teacher unions are questioning the efficacy of homeschooling without the backup of trained tutors.
“The uptake of homeschooling in Zimbabwe has not been very successful,” said Tapson Sibanda, immediate past secretary general of the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta).
“Homeschooling is a concept that is mainly workable with elite families. Most of the poor families cannot afford it under this economic meltdown as it needs compliant gadgets like smart phones which are beyond the reach of many.
“It also (requires) internet connection and some parents can’t even (navigate) the gadgets for the purposes of assisting their children especially the primary school going ages,” he added. In Zimbabwe’s rural areas in particular, most families have no access to electricity or internet.
With teachers frequently on strike to demand better pay and the quality of education increasingly degenerating, parents are hard pressed to find alternative solutions for their children in a country that has long boasted one of the highest literacy rates in Africa.
“Homeschooling is a challenge because parents are always running around looking for money to survive and still have enough time to (teach) their children,” said Josphat Gwezhira, secretary for research at the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe.
“What we are also seeing are parents inviting tutors to their homes as they see that their children are not getting the kind of education they would prefer.” This is despite warnings from the ministry of education and Zimbabwe’s anti-corruption watchdog that teachers who conduct “extra lessons” outside the formal classroom risk arrest. Teacher unions admit that many educators are augmenting their wages by moonlighting as private tutors.
“Those parents who decide not to send their children to formal classes must have deep pockets as the needs for homeschooling can also be expensive,” Gwezhira said.
A local think tank, the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development, says up to 4 million children require assistance with school fees, a figures the government has dismissed as inaccurate. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) says up to 11% of children between 15 and 17 do not finish primary education.
By Unicef’s estimates, 47% of children of school going age are not attending classes in Zimbabwe.
Educating children from home does not work for poor families with no access to electricity or the internet.
Education ministry spokesperson Taungana Ndoro says the department has a community outreach programme to bring such children back to school.
“Government is paying for those that cannot pay fees. No learner is to be chased away for nonpayment of fees,” Ndoro said. The government has however been criticised for years for failing to subsidise fees for children from needy families under its Basic Education Assistance Module programme.
As more financially-struggling parents withdraw their children from school, there are concerns that girls in particular, who have traditionally got the short end of the stick when poor families have to decide which of their offspring to prioritise for school attendance, could lose out on an education.
During the school closures enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic, girls were the worst affected as some fell pregnant or were married off by their parents, according to Unicef Zimbabwe spokesperson Rutendo Kambarami.
“Learning should be provided to all learners — whether through formal or non-formal modules — and especially to those who cannot get back to school and create safety nets for the girls at the risk of dropping out,” Kambarami said.
For a small minority of parents in Zimbabwe with easy access to foreign currency, homeschooling is becoming the option of choice where their children can attend lessons on platforms run by agencies in the United Kingdom where they pay for teaching material in forex.
“In the long run, homeschooling is the way to go as technology keeps on advancing,” Zimta’s Sibanda said, noting however that high data costs remain a huge drawback.
But a key concern that education experts have raised is that, whereas in other countries there are mechanisms in place compelling parents to notify the authorities when they withdraw their children from formal classes in favour of homeschooling, in Zimbabwe there are no effective checks and balances.
Also, there is no proper framework in place for homeschooled children to get a proper assessment that meets current aptitude testing standards.
“Homeschooling children are given tests, however one cannot guarantee that they are written in an examination environment. As no one wants to fail, cheating of all sorts is rampant,” said Sibanda.
This story was made possible by the M&G Guardians Project in partnership with the Adamela Trust.
[/membership]