ZIMBABWE is currently saddled with approximately a 3000 schools deficit against an estimated 13,000 demand for schools to satisfy the demand for educational services for children aged between 3 and 18 years.
By Michael Gwarisa
According to the 2022 Population Census data, Zimbabwe has an estimated population of 6,694,618 children who are aged 3 to 18 years and of these children, 49.77 percent are boys while 50.2 percent are girls.
Presenting Priorities for the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education at a Child Budgeting Meeting in Harare, Ms Tumisang Thabeta, the Ministry of education Permanent Secretary said this age group represents the demand for educational services and unfortunately the country does not have capacity to meet demand.
The estimated demand for schools to satisfy this population is 13,100. However, according to the last educational census of 2021, there were only 10, 147 schools which gives a deficit of close to 3000 schools. Supply is therefore less than the demand. This calls for a deliberate investment in education especially in light of growing population and emerging settlements across the country,” said Ms Thabeta
She said the new settlements that are faced by these demographic realities have resulted in the rise of satellite schools that are not fully fledged to provide the needed educational services.
“Currently we have about 1,963 such schools in new settlements areas. 1,087 of these are primary schools whilst 876 are in the secondary sector. These satellite schools need substantial investment in infrastructure in order to be upgraded and match functionality standards as set by the ministry for registration as standalone and schools that can actually attract leadership and attract more resources.”
The Zimbabwean government gave education a budget allocation of 15 percent of the total budget and this has gone up considerably as government works towards getting to the 20 percent targeted for financing education in Zimbabwe. However, above 90 percent of the allocated funds are going towards administrative costs such as teacher remuneration and leaner support. This year’s budget is also about 2 percent of the GDP.
“The budget allocation though big is still quite shy of our funding demands. Government cannot do it alone. It thus invites ministry to mobilize extra funding from alternative avenues.”
She added that there was a discrepancy in the literacy and numeracy levels in Zimbabwe. According to results of the Zimbabwe 2021 ZELA (our foundational learning level internal national Assessment) statistics revealed 75 percent literacy and 72 percent numeracy levels, indicating gaps of above 20 percent in each. These gaps according to government increase as learning intensifies and contribute greatly to poor performance at upper grades and beyond.
