Govt should make eMAP accessible to rural parents
VONGAI Nganga’s son passed his Grade Seven examinations with six units at Madondo, a rural primary school in Chikomba District, Mashonaland West province.
An uncle offered to pay fees for him at a boarding school, so, like many other Zimbabwean parents, Nganga tried to use the government’s electronic Ministry Application Platform (eMAP), an internetbased enrolment system introduced in December 2016.
But Nganga did not have a smartphone and had never before set her hands on a computer. She had to board a bus to Chivhu, her nearest town, to get internet access. At a cyber café, she paid $2 to access the internet for an hour. She didn’t know how to use a computer, so she asked for assistance and paid $5 for the service.
The following day, she had to board another bus to St Francis of Assisi High School to inquire whether her son had been offered a place. Unfortunately, he had not.
The distraught mother had to spend more money to go to Daramombe and Kwenda, the other schools she had applied to, to check if her son had been accepted.
Like Nganga, many rural parents experienced these hurdles as they tried to secure places at better schools for their children. E-MAP’s accessibility is still a nightmare to rural parents who cannot appreciate its convenience.
Poverty, lack of internet infrastructure and low computer literacy, among other things, stand in the way of rural parents such that, even if they want to embrace eMAP, they just cannot.
According to the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat)’s September 2016 report on poverty, 6% of people in the country are living in poverty, which is more pronounced in rural than in urban areas.
If the majority of the rural people are surviving below the poverty datum line, they cannot afford internet services or buy the smartphones which their urban counterparts use to conveniently get onto eMAP.
In its 2016 final report, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) revealed that there are fewer 3G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) base stations that enhance stronger internet connectivity in the rural areas than there are in urban areas.
As a result, broadband, which refers to high speed and always available internet connection, is sparse in rural areas. It means there is a digital divide between urban and rural areas in term of internet access.
While mobile penetration is above 90% in the country, internet penetration on the other hand is still around 50%, with lower usage in rural areas, according to Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz). With this digital divide, it means the rural parents will have challenges to log onto the platform and secure a place at the time those in the urban areas are participating on the platform. Rural parents, therefore, lag behind.
Those parents with fast internet connectivity will get the places first, while those without will struggle. As a result, the rural child is deprived of a fair opportunity to be enrolled at a better school.
In other words, no matter how intelligent they might be, rural children are put at a disadvantage in being enrolled at schools of their choice through the use of eMAP.
According to the 2015 ZimStat Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (Mics) report on education, literacy levels increase with an increase in the wealth of a household. Therefore, in rural areas, where poverty is more pronounced, computer literacy, which is essential for participation on the online application platform, is also low.
The rural parents need effective awareness campaigns on how eMAP works before they can participate on the platform at the same level as urban dwellers.
However, the Government has not turned a blind eye to the plight of rural people.
President Robert Mugabe launched the Presidential Computerisation Programme in 2012, targeting rural schools to break the digital divide in computer access. Those computers can be used to promote the use of eMAP in rural areas. However, without electricity, the computers cannot work and the rural parents remain at a disadvantage when it comes to online participation. The Rural Electrification Programme was launched to ensure power connectivity in rural areas, but most areas have not yet been electrified, hence challenges in internet access persist. The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education, Dr Sylvia Utete-Masango, has said eMAP was introduced to fight corruption and ease costs incurred by parents because of costly entrance tests. The electronic enrolment system is convenient, cheap and transparent, but if the barriers that make it difficult for rural parents to participate are not addressed, the platform may work to further marginalise rural people. Primary and Secondary Education Minister DrLazarus Dokora should make hay while the sun is still shining and avoid last minute reformations in the enrolment system that may cause confusion in the 2018 Form One enrolment. The writer is a journalism student at the National University of Science and Technology IT is around midday in the border town of Beitbridge, Tendai (not real name) and two other friends are busy cleaning vehicles at a car wash in Dulivhadzimu Township.
Soon after getting paid by several clients, they take a break and then rush to a close business centre, where they buy 12 pints of relatively cheap imported Black Label beer and isitshwala with beef.
The meal is packed in three kay-lite containers.
They carry their food and beer back to their workplace. They start eating and then wash down the food with the “wise waters” as they wait for more clients.
A few minutes later they throw away the disposable empties and food containers in all directions oblivious of the littering they are causing around the town.
During that process two more youthful men arrive in sleek cars. They get off and empty all the litter from their cars and throw it away like Tendai and his friends.
After having their cars cleaned they drive away.
While Tendai and his colleagues are enjoying their meals and beer, further afield in the Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai suburb, a woman with a baby strapped to her back is throwing used diapers into the Wamlala stream next to two young boys relieving themselves on the shores of the same stream.
The area around Hlalani Kuhle is not serviced. It has no water and sewer system hence residents have resorted to relieving themselves on the banks of the stream which flows all the way to the mighty Limpopo River.
In three days’ time the area around the car wash and the Wamlala stream is littered with solid waste including empty beer bottles, kay-lites, diapers and human waste.
Such actions by Tendai, his clients, the woman throwing diapers and the two boys relieving themselves on the banks of the stream has resulted in extensive littering in Beitbridge town.
The situation has also been worsened by the Beitbridge Town Council (BTC)’s incompetency on issues around refuse collection. The current refuse collection system is not very reliable.
Being the busiest port, the population around Beitbridge has been growing with almost thousands of people per year.
Around 2013 the town had close to 42 000 people but that has increased to around 60 000 due to the town’s economic activity and proximity to South Africa.
A further 12 000 transit population use the border on a daily basis.
The town secretary, Mr Loud Ramakgapola, said recently they were working on at least 700 tonnes of solid waste per month.
He said they were seized with the issues of littering around the town and major highways leading to Bulawayo and Harare.
Mr Ramakgapola added that they had launched an annual mayor’s half marathon to raise awareness on sanitation issues.
The initiative involves a 20km road race which starts at Lutumba Business Centre and ends in the CBD.
Said Mr Ramakgapola; “During the race we will have people cleaning up the highways and most litter hotspots while others will run against litter.
“It is important that we pull in one direction as stakeholders if we are to achieve our set target.
“In this year’s edition that will be held on 29 July we are expecting over 300 athletes. Prior to the race we will have a clean-up programme around the town and the major roads.”
BTC chairperson Councillor Showa Moyo says currently the town has 300 street bins against target of 500.
She said they have been engaging a number of partners with a view of improving environmental management systems in the town.
The town chairperson said they had close to 300 bins in the town and more would be installed in the CBD and along the highway.
“We are appealing to development partners to assist us in constructing communal bins in the suburbs and at business centres.
“It is also important that we engage each other with a shared vision with others with like minds so that we can move in one direction,” she said.
Clr Moyo added that recently they received a donation of 100 bins from TelOne, which have since been installed around the CBD and along the major highways.
She said the local authority was seized with issues of littering adding that they would continue planning on more strategies to ensure they improve on environmental management.
“We have a problem with littering of mainly disposable beer bottles and cans. These are common and are imported from Musina, South Africa which is our closest town,” said the chairperson.
The Environmental Management Authority (Ema) has also scaled up efforts to manage littering in port and mining towns.
A fortnight ago they jointly held an anti-litter march with BTC and various stakeholders with a view to increasing participation in environmental management.
Ema board spokesperson Mr Felix Moyo said the allocation of unserviced housing stands to people had caused a health hazard in urban centres.
Said Mr Moyo: “We have advised the Beitbridge Town Council and other urban councils not to allow land development before the area is serviced or without proper sanitary facilities.
“Allowing habitation on undeveloped land increases littering and in most cases this comes with a lot of health hazards”.
He said they were equally worried about the state of affairs in most areas where people have settled on unserviced land.
Mr Moyo said Ema was rolling out a number of anti-littering campaigns in most hotspots which include highways, mining and border towns.
He also said they were looking at mobilising resources that would help in capacitating local authorities on issues relating to environmental management.
“We have targeted Beitbridge town for the anti-littering campaigns considering that it is the face of Zimbabwe to those people accessing the country from South Africa.
“Further, you will note that this is one of the busiest inland ports in Southern Africa, where we have a daily transit population of 12 000.
“This then calls for us to scale up our efforts on issues of effective environmental management,” he said.
Mr Moyo added that a clean environment attracts investors and hence the importance of sprucing up the face of ports of entry.
He said they were concerned with solid waste management and littering mainly of beer cans, bottle, and airtime vouchers and kay-lites.
“Our neighbours are clean but here in the country there is a lot of littering. The other reason why we chose Beitbridge is that there was an early warning on heavy rains in the country.
“Previously Beitbridge experienced an outbreak of cholera and that made us come here to avert a repeat of that. However, we are happy that our awareness campaigns have paid dividends,” said Mr Moyo.
It’s high time Ema sets aside resources to capacitate local authorities in port and mining towns which will help fund environmental management issues.
Further, BTC must review its refuse collection policy which has resulted in the mushrooming of illegal dumpsites in the high density suburbs.
In addition the local authority must come up with by-laws which will help them to deal with litter bug.
Ema must also descend hard on litter bugs otherwise their dream for a clean environment in Beitbridge will remain elusive.