EDUCATION, Sport, Arts and Culture minister David Coltart confirmed Zimbabwe lost 20 000 teachers in one year between 2007 and 2008. Coltart’s statement was made in the wake of a report by the Research and Advocacy Unit (Rau) this week that revealed 70 000 teachers had fled political violence between 2000 and 2008.
Staff Writer
The report — titled Fragility and Education in Zimbabwe: Assessing the Impact of Violence on Education — followed research by Lloyd Pswarayi and Tony Reeler on the impact of the economic meltdown and political instability on the education sector.
In June last year, Parliament also produced a damning report on the education sector which corroborated Coltart’s figures.
Coltart gave evidence before the education committee and was quoted saying: “The ministry lost 20 000 teachers between 2007 and 2008 and needed more teachers,” before introducing an amnesty policy for teachers who had left due to economic hardships and political violence. According to the Parliament report: “After the 2008 elections teachers claimed some were killed, raped, victimised and tortured in front of students by politicians for supporting political parties of their choice.”
Zanu PF secretary for education Sikhanyiso Ndlovu on Thursday tried to rubbish the research by Rau, saying they were paid by imperialists to produce negative reports about Zimbabwe’s education system. “Who are these ghost researchers and who is paying them to produce negative reports of Zimbabwe’s education system? More than 300 000 students complete secondary education each year in Zimbabwe and the textbook situation is the best in the whole of Africa,” Ndlovu said.
Schools only got textbooks last year after Coltart mobilised donors to raise funds to buy them.Ndlovu’s statements were used by The Herald to claim that NewsDay lied about the number of teachers who left the country following the publication of a story based on the Rau report on Thursday this week.
