Integrity in education needs safeguarding
THIS week, learners troop back to school after a largely seamless school calendar last year. The fact that 2023 was incident-free is a welcome relief, especially after the inconveniencing disruptions in recent years occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, among other factors.
What made 2023 even more remarkable was the fact that the local examinations management body — the Zimbabwe School Examinations Council — seemed to have done its homework by ensuring question papers did not leak both before and during public exams.
This abominable illegal practice, which was becoming alarmingly regular and routine, threatened to undermine the foundations of our local education system.
In this epoch under the Second Republic, and now more than ever, the importance of the education sector cannot be overemphasised, for it undergirds our developmental aspirations.
It is this sector that mints the human resource that will drive our development agenda.
In the past, it has produced an army of capable blue- and white-collar workers, corporate leaders, entrepreneurs and academics, among others, that have distinguished themselves in various fields and pursuits at home and abroad.
It is not by chance that many of the reputable world institutions are staffed and led by Zimbabweans.
For instance, James Manyika — who has since carved his name in the contemporary field of artificial intelligence, which is currently exercising the minds of policymakers and corporates across the world — was educated at Goromonzi High School, before earning his first degree at the University of Zimbabwe.
Ralph Mupita, another high-flier who now heads multinational telecommunications company MTN Group, is a product of our education system.
The ruling party ZANU PF’s director of information and publicity, Cde Farai Marapira, recently described Zimbabweans living and working in the diaspora as the country’s “gift to the world”. Indeed, they are.
All this is a manifestation of the investment that has been put in the education sector since independence in 1980.
And realising the centrality and utilitarian value of our human resources to the already stated ambitious objective of establishing a prosperous and highly industrialised and modernised state by the year 2030, the Government has continued to double down on investments in the sector.
In the 2024 National Budget, the biggest allocation — $8 trillion — was made to the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to facilitate “provision of quality and easy access to education and other learning opportunities for children . . .”
A chunk of the money is also meant for teaching and learning materials, as well as teacher capacitation at both primary and secondary education level.
In addition, the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development got $2,3 trillion, which cumulatively translates to significant resources that have been channelled to education. The logic behind all this is obvious. So, clearly, the Government has put its money where its mouth is to ensure that the sector continues to churn out doctors, engineers, accountants, actuaries, academics, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs, among others, who can power the country’s development.
Although the Government has and is doing its part, the growing malfeasance and misfeasance in the sector threaten to undo the progress we have made in the past four decades.
Despite repeated warnings from the authorities, some teachers continue to conduct so-called extra lessons, which are no more than extortion schemes designed to arm-twist parents into paying to ensure their children get the due attention they ordinarily deserve.
There are reports where non-paying learners are ignored and isolated from the paying class.
The potential harm this practice can have on learners is apparent.
Equally, in some instances, learners are routinely forced to buy all manner of trinkets and materials, some of which are not even part of learning materials to wring money out of them.
There are many other similar shenanigans that have become pervasive in schools.
It is just preposterous.
The Government needs to act decisively to uproot this cancer before it metastasises and affect the whole system.
Where moral suasion does not work, action needs to be taken. Simply huffing and puffing will not cut it.
The integrity of our education system, which is the envy of many countries in the world, needs to be safeguarded at all costs.
Zimbabwe still stands today, despite the obstacles that are put in its path by countries that consider it an adversary, because of the sheer intellect, talent, graft and determination of its people.
So, as schools open this week, the more reason we must commit to protect the gains we have realised in our education sector.
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