Alex Bell - 26 January 2009
As the 2009 academic year is set to finally get under way
on Tuesday, there are fears that thousands of students, as well as teachers,
will not return, raising the likelihood that many schools will remain shut.
The government postponed the reopening of schools for the
New Year by two weeks, saying teachers needed more time to finish marking the
2008 end of year exams. But teachers, who have been on strike since last year,
have vowed not to return to work until their demands for better working
conditions and foreign currency salaries have been met, and the majority of exam
results have not been released.
In an extraordinary development the regime wasn't content
in just delaying the opening of government schools. Private schools were also
stopped from opening and pupils as young as 5 years of age were turned away by
soldiers from their school gates.
A rescue package that would have seen government teachers
being paid in foreign cash was also earlier this year rejected by the
government, who at the same time have made no commitment to pay its civil
servants anything other than the worthless local dollar. The situation means
that thousands of teachers will not return to work on Tuesday, when the school
doors are expected to open once again and Teachers Unions have already warned
that schools are not ready for the academic year to get underway.
Zimbabwe's education sector has not been spared in the
total collapse of the country, and it's believed that less than 20% of the
country's children received schooling last year. The attendance number is once
again expected to drop, this time dramatically, as thousands of children and
their families are still battling the humanitarian crisis, that has left untold
thousands dead from disease and starvation. At the same time, the almost total
dollarisation of the economy means many schools have pegged new fees in foreign
currency, making education a luxury that the majority of Zimbabweans cannot
afford.