The empty chairs in the classroom at Hatcliffe, a township north of the Zimbabwean capital Harare, are a familiar sight in many schools in the economically-blighted country.
A few weeks after schools opened for the year’s first term, six pupils in a class of 34 had not shown up and schoolteacher Aaron Maturure was beginning to worry.
”Maybe their parents have failed to raise school fees for them or their parents can’t buy them school uniforms … as you know prices have shot up,” Maturure said.
”The children enjoy school so much they would never miss classes for flimsy reasons.”
Government schools are not free in Zimbabwe but charge lower rates than private ones. There are a handful of bursaries for some poor students.
Takavafira Zhou, president of the radical Progressive Teachers’ Union, said at least 45 000 pupils had dropped out of school when the new term began in January, while up to 5 000 teachers had left the government service.
”This is lowering standards as it heaps the burden on the remaining teachers,” he said.
”Access to education is now based on means rather than merit. This is retrogressive. It reverses the gains made over the years.”
A steep rise in school fees and the exorbitant price of uniforms and stationery have driven the cost of education beyond the reach of many.
Poor families reeling under record inflation which peaked to a new high of 1 281% in December often face the tough choice between starvation and educating their children.
”Two of my three children are supposed to be in school but I failed to raise school fees after they went up,” said Norice Kachaka, a resident of northern Harare.
Authorities raised school fees by up to 1 000% in a move aimed at improving facilities in state schools, which mostly operate without adequate textbooks and laboratory equipment. Some of the buildings need urgent repairs.
”Tell me what future there is for these children who can’t even go to primary school because of the high fees?” said Farisai Mutanga, whose three children were sent home for not wearing proper uniforms.
A primary school pupil pays an average of Z$30 000 ($120) a term in fees, up from around Z$7 000 last year.
School uniforms, which includes shoes, sneakers, a pullover, a blazer and a hat, can now cost up to Z$400 000.
To skimp on uniforms, which are compulsory, some parents stitch it themselves but the price of material is also making that option unaffordable.
A metre of cloth ranges from Z$12 000 to Z$20 000.
A lack of resources, high fees and an exodus of teachers are reversing the gains of Zimbabwe’s ”education for all” policy launched in the 1980s, which made the Southern African country one of the most literate on the continent.
Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZMTA) chief executive officer Peter Mabande said scores of trained teachers were heading to South Africa to do menial jobs that paid more.
Mabande said they often left without informing school authorities or their union, making it difficult to estimate numbers but underlined that it was ”a huge investment going to waste”.
”We have heard cases of our members doing menial jobs on farms in South Africa, hoping to get a teaching job later,” Mabande said.
”We can’t take three years training professionals only to lose them. The situation is bad, they want to survive on their salaries which are a pittance really.
This, he said, was driving teachers to moonlight as street hawkers, farm labourers or traders to supplement their income.
”Some of the things teachers end up doing for survival are demeaning to the profession. You have teachers who cross borders nearly every week to buy things for resale and in the end they are no different from the ordinary trader.”
President Robert Mugabe, himself a former teacher, last month pledged to improve the lot of teachers and make education affordable to all.
He rapped schools charging exorbitant fees, saying: ”We are not saying run schools at a loss. No. We are saying there should be a little margin of profit but not outrageous ones.” – Sapa-AFP