Zimbabwe was once a country that was filled with hope for a bright future. At its independence and after the hard earned right to majority rule, one citizen one vote, Zimbabwe was hailed the great beacon of democracy for the African continent.
Zimbabwe today, the country shamefully known to boast the highest rate per capita of HIV/AIDS orphans.
Zimbabwe where every day at least another 350 children are destined to the life of orphanhood.
Zimbabwe,
where in 2005 alone 160 000 children became orphans bringing the figure
today to 1,6 million children with no parents to love, care and dream
for them.
Zimbabwe in 2007 - by year end a further 25% of the
country’s children will be orphaned, destined to add to the burden of
child headed households, or homes where aged grannies must eke out a
living to try and sustain the lives of tribes of young ones now in
their care. Those are the lucky ones who still have a
support network to fall back on, but then there are the others who fall
prey to prostitution, crime, life on the street and endless days spent
scavenging in the rubbish heap of humanity.
Speaking in Johannesburg
in 2005, UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy urged politicians and
donors to turn their attention to the needs of the children of
st1:country-region>Zimbabwe.
“Every day children in Zimbabwe
are dying of HIV/AIDS, every day children are becoming infected,
orphaned, and forced to leave school to care for sick parents,” said
Bellamy.
Add to the desperate mother’s misery more facts, more figures –
more than 85% unemployment, the world’s fastest shrinking economy and
the fact that basic food stuffs, if and when available, are just plain
unaffordable. Then
you find out that the country that was once a gross exporter of food is
now beggared to the very nations its government continuously reviles
and accuses of bringing on its demise.
What does it mean to her?
It means the reality of the recent UN studies report that 29.4
per cent of under-five children are stunted through malnutrition, that
if her child is lucky enough to reach the age of 5, for one in eight do
not, then in all likelihood she will not be there to nurture her child,
for in Zimbabwe, the average life expectancy for women is a mere 34
years.
If that mother proudly reaches the moment to take her child
to its first day at school, she is met with an education system once
hailed the pride of Africa, with the highest literacy rate on the continent and in which the once heroic Mugabe invested vigorously.
Once, 90% of Zimbabwe’s
children were enrolled in Primary schools, but by 2003 that had dropped to 65%. There
were the dark days of elections when teachers were seen as a major
enemy of the state, their own education allowing them to understand and
promote human rights, voter education
and whose majority were opposition supporters. The teachers, prime targets of state sponsored intimidation and violence were arrested or chased from their schools in droves.
Coupled with teacher victimisation was the closure of the thousands of
farm schools, the horrific winter of 2005 when government forcibly
evicted and destroyed the homes of hundreds of thousands in
Murambatsvina (Operation Clean Out Filth) and now we see the evidence
of seven years of continuous deprivation – a massive brain drain that
one of our illustrious ministers recently declared as having no effect
on our social fabric.
The Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ) recently
reported that at least 15,200 teachers have left for neighbouring
states so far just this year. Many schools now simply
open their doors just to keep children off the street, classes sit idle
as there is no one left to teach them. The recent
teachers’ strike was held to demand higher wages, a highly qualified
high school science teacher was earning less than Z$4 million a month,
the poverty datum line was set at Z$12 million. The
increase of 400% has now brought them in line with poverty datum, but
with inflation expected to reach 100 000% by year end, this increase
will be meaningless within weeks. Already, since this
increase came into effect, a 500gr bar of laundry soap is back in the
stores after a long absence, at just under Z$1 million.
October is the time for the government set Grade 7
examinations, a massive farce for there are few teachers left to mark
these papers and several schools reported that when they recently
opened their examination packs all they found were blank sheets. The Ministry of Education messed up once again.
Ministry set Zimsec “O” and “A” level results are often
ludicrous indicating markers do not know what they are doing and in any
case, results for these examinations are now not recognised anywhere
else in the world and their delayed release holds up institutions of
higher learning for months. This year pass rates will again plummet, devastating any vestige of dignity or hope left to these young people.
The litany of woes in the primary and secondary education system is endless. One just has to do a quick search of the news on any given day to discover just how bad it is.
Then our young adults leave school, some lucky enough to pass their final examinations in spite of hardship. What then can they look forward to?
Universities and colleges that work intermittently with numerous strikes held by both the academic staff and students. Faculties
that are decayed and unequipped because there is no money available
from plundered state coffers, dormitories shut down by health
departments, water cut off because there is none or the institutions
have no funds to pay their bills, cafeterias defunct, books unavailable. Add
all of that to regular harassment of students attempting to change the
status quo with any individual standing up for their rights beaten into
submission.
Finally, if your child manages to get a degree or higher education or even a school leaver’s certificate what then? Bread queues, food queues, no transport to
work (if you can get a job), no water, no power, no hope….
Why, asks the young mother is there this state of despair and collapse?
The answer is because this country has never known true democracy. From the beginning Robert Mugabe was hell bent on power, absolute power at any price. His
bevy of power junkies fawning to their master’s whims, enriched by
their clinging to greed, regardless of the pain and suffering amongst
the people who yearn for freedom from tyranny.
The world sees the false patina of democracy, fooled by
institutions that mock the very foundations of the democratic process,
lulled by the eloquent ranting of an octogenarian politician, giving
the third world the false promises they desperately cling to.
How long will it take for the cowed and defeated people of
this country to stand up and fight for what is theirs you may ask, but
it can only happen when they can be freely and fairly educated.
So when you see a young Zimbabwean mother stare at her child with despair and defeat, understand why. Understand
that for her democracy is a dream and it is only with the world’s
support and encouragement that she can promise her baby – hope.
via the Zimbabwe
Independent (Harare)
OPINION
12 October 2007
Posted to the web 12
October 2007
Ronald Murefu
Harare
I AM 15 years old and I have asked my brother to help put
this together.
I am looking forward to writing my 'O'levels next year.
However, I am worried about writing exams under the discredited Zimsec exam
system.
As
I study, I look at my brother's 'O' and 'A'level certificates and curse
being born late to be educated under such a system. As children we are
taught that old people are wise but I question the wisdom in changing
our system to such a poor system that our education and exam standards
are so pathetic. I pity the children who regard such men as their
fathers.
I have a dream that one day a new
government will bring in a new education minister who knows what they
are doing. Only then will our education system be solid and we would be
measured against Australians, Singaporeans, the British and other
progressive nationalities.
I have a dream that after
Aeneas Chigwedere, my teachers will go back to being the respected
middle class lot that they once were. I urge whoever takes over from
the current regime to go back to basics in as far as high school
education is concerned.
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