President Mnangagwa recently announced that the government is aiming to achieve free education for all primary school students by the year 2023.
Due to the effects of Covid 19, many children have not been learning and some have even had to drop out of school. The pandemic took a toll on both the education system and the parents of schoolgoers.
Schools have been forced to adapt to e-learning and that is if they even have the resources to deliver. In the event that schools were able to deliver, many students could not afford the facility.
The President spoke about the number of school dropouts being the major motivator towards the decision to make education free for primary schools. He also said all children will receive tablets for e-learning purposes funded by the government.
While this is a great cause, how realistic is the 2023 target? As it stands government is failing to pay teachers well. The past couple of months has been spent negotiating with teachers to go to work even though the civil servants feel that their salaries are way below what they deserve.
How will the government manage to make extra funds available for running the schools without students paying school fees? How will it also buy tablets for students if it cannot buy tablets for teachers? We are already 3 months into the year 2022. This leaves the president 9 months to deliver on this promise.
Will the government in the next nine months manage to adjust teachersā salaries and make a budget available to maintain schools without the need for school fees payments by parentsā¦and also buy each primary scholar textbooks and a tablet? It seems like a mammoth task and the government will need a mammoth strategy to match.