The rise and fall of Zimbabwe's schools

By Joseph Winter
BBC News Online

The enforced closure this week of some 45 private schools illustrates just how far Zimbabwe's education system has declined in recent years.

Zimbabwe still has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa

Following independence in 1980, the government of former teacher Robert Mugabe was widely praised for expanding education to the black majority, who had been kept out of the best schools.

By the 1990s, Zimbabwe had the highest literacy rates in Africa and it remains high at 89% of the adult population.

But the economic crisis, compounded by the HIV/Aids pandemic, means that school enrolment has fallen to 59%.

"I am very worried by the drop-out rate," the head of Zimbabwe's teaching unions Peter Mabande told BBC News Online.

'Chaotic situation'

The private schools - previously reserved for whites - were shut down by the government after raising fees by up to 500%.

The law says that increases of more than 10% must be approved by the education ministry, while annual inflation is currently more than 580%.

We believe they are motivated not by a desire to keep school fees down but by a desire to undermine the urban middle class, which traditionally supports the opposition David Coltart

The schools say the ministry has been slow to approve their requests to raise fees and that if they don't raise fees in line with inflation, the best teachers will leave and standards will fall.

Opposition MP and chairman of the Petra independent schools trust David Coltart says that the latest fee increases were backed by the parents, who want the best for their children.

"There is no justification for bringing private schools down to the absolutely chaotic situation prevailing in public schools," he told the BBC Network Africa programme.

State-run schools have also been feeling the pinch and last year raised their own fees by between 200 and 2000%.

Although fees in state schools are sometimes nominal - $250 (5 US cents) a term - when the cost of books and uniforms is added, many of Zimbabwe's poorest families can no longer afford education.

'Hot-seating'

Unemployment has rocketed in recent years with the closure of factories and other business and more than half of the population needs food aid.

Ex-teacher Mugabe was praised for expanding education in the 1980s

The streets of the main cities are now full of children whose parents have been killed by Aids and who are struggling to find enough food to eat and so can't even think about going to school.

Officially, those unable to afford school fees will be given grants but the schools themselves are short of money and so many children fall through the net.

In order to cope with the financial shortages, schools in overcrowded urban areas operate "hot-seating".

One group of children goes to school in the morning and another group in the afternoon.

In rural areas, there are not enough school buildings and some children learn with only the shade of a tree to protect them from the searing sun.

Demonised

The government accuses the private schools of being racist and of trying to keep blacks out by raising fees so high that only whites can afford them.

But the schools strongly deny this and say that most schools have a black majority.

Some 30,000 pupils are reported to be affected by the closures

Before many whites left after being demonised by the government, they were just 80,000 out of a population of 12 million.

So operating an all-white school would not be a viable proposition.

In Zimbabwe, politics is everything and as his position has come under increasing threat in recent years, Mr Mugabe has taken to blaming his problems on the white community and their alleged backers in the UK.

"We believe they are motivated not by a desire to keep school fees down but by a desire to undermine the urban middle class, which traditionally supports the opposition," Mr Coltart said.

Precedent

The school fee policy is also an example of Mr Mugabe's general approach to economics.

As inflation has risen and risen, his government has not sought to curb spending or encourage exports, as most economists would suggest, he has imposed price controls.

The prices of basic goods such as bread and sugar have been set by the government.

Last year, bakers were taken to court after doubling the price of bread.

They said the official price was below the cost of production.

So if the government let private schools get away with breaking the law on fee increases, it would be setting a precedent for all the other business trying to survive in a country where cynics say it would be cheaper to use small denomination banknotes than buy toilet paper.