Hats a size too large for most of the small heads, formal school uniforms equally incongruous, they march on regardless ‒ the vanguard in an effort to bring pre-schoolers into Zimbabwe’s education system.
Beginning this year, primary schools in this Southern African country are required to have at least one class that caters for four- and five-year-olds, to help these children prepare for first grade. This pre-school class, also known as “grade zero”, is part of government’s Early Childhood Education and Care Programme (ECEC).
Parents like Veronica Ndlovu have welcomed the move.
“I think it’s a good idea because by the time he starts grade one, he’ll be in a better position to appreciate basic concepts,” she says of her five-year-old son.
A variety of studies support Ndlovu’s beliefs on this point, noting that children who have had the benefit of early childhood education are able to avoid repeating grades. In the long term, these children are also less likely to become criminals ‒ or, in the case of girls, fall pregnant.
For its part, Zimbabwe’s Presidential Commission into Education and Training in 1999 said it had received positive reports about the “alertness and motivation to learn” by children who had attended early childhood education facilities ‒ and who were now at primary school.
The expansion of schools to include early childhood education is one of 139 recommendations made by the commission.
“Pre-schools are to provide care for children, educate them and foster their development into responsible individuals with good communication skills,” says the body’s report, which estimated that at least two-thirds of Zimbabwean children did not have access to ECEC centres.
Until now, pre-primary education has mostly been the preserve of better-off families in towns and cities.
Training facilities in rural parts of Zimbabwe and crowded urban areas, said the commission, were in a sorry state: “Centres ranged from a tree to a thatched shelter, from a wooden shack or a log cabin to a tiny but crowded sitting room in a high density area with 30 or more little ones sitting in rows, to structures with leaking roofs.”
In addition, facilities that provided pre-primary education were rarely linked to primary schools, while not all followed the recommended curriculum. Teachers who took charge of pre-schoolers often lacked the appropriate training.
While few would dispute the need for early childhood education, concerns abound that schools are too hard pressed at the moment to implement the grade zero initiative effectively.
Zimbabwe is embroiled in an economic crisis, the product of political upheaval and fiscal mismanagement, which has had a severe impact on the nation’s schools. Many of these institutions are struggling simply to meet existing commitments ‒ such as basic maintenance of school toilets and sports fields, or the provision of textbooks to pupils.
In a public protest last month, members of a woman’s pressure group demanded the resignation of Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere, saying he had presided over falling education standards. They also appeared to question the sincerity of new schooling initiatives.
“A lot of things that we are currently seeing are things that we expect to see ahead of an election, after which they will fall by the wayside due to budgetary constraints,” said Jenni Williams, head of Women of Zimbabwe Arise. Zimbabweans go to the polls for parliamentary elections at the end of next month.
Fears that Harare simply doesn’t have the ability to put its money where its mouth is as concerns pre-primary classes are borne out by the situation at facilities like Gampu Primary School in the southern city of Bulawayo.
Here, grade zero lessons have not begun ‒ the enthusiastic response from parents notwithstanding. A qualified teacher has yet to be found to conduct the class, and no furniture has been provided for the pre-schoolers. Toys and a special play area adapted to the needs of young children are little more than a pipe dream.
“The government has said the community should see what it can do,” says Tineyi Hwande, a treasurer of the parent-run school development association.
But, parents are as cash-strapped as the education ministry.
“We still want it to be an affordable programme, so we cannot raise much money through (parents’) levies,” notes Hwande.