Importance of educational excellence
The news yesterday was that the World Economic Forum had graded the South African education system for science and mathematics – last – last out of 140 countries studied. I thought that was our area, but for once we rated better than our much larger and wealthier neighbors. In the same week, 4 of the top five universities in Africa were listed in South Africa.
There is no doubt in my mind that of all the social services that a society must provide, education is one of the most important and countries that fail to provide good quality education at every level are almost certain to fail. Education is also the most important empowerment tool – any country in Africa that fails to educate its girls condemns them to a life where they are treated as second-class citizens almost everywhere.
In fact it is very difficult to overstate the issue of education but the issue is primarily how to pay for it. In Zimbabwe when we in the MDC controlled the Ministry of Finance and Budget, we set the basic budget for education at about 23 percent of the national budget. Thus it was far above the provision for education provided by other countries, but it was, and still is, grossly inadequate. We have 3,5 million young people of school age and if you divide that number by the national budget you get a budget of $20 per person per month.
Our own track record has not been bad. During the era of the Rhodesian government, education services were provided by the Church largely through mission schools, which housed large numbers of black children. This system benefited from the activities of hundreds of highly trained and motivated foreign missionaries in the country, who gave their lives to the provision of education and in the process provided a very high level of education for many people at a very low cost per capita.
The price we paid for this was the conversion of many youth to Christianity and these traditions survived even after independence in 1980 and today the Zimbabwean population is largely Christian in some form or the other.
However, the men and women who emerged from the Bush War in the 1980s to take power and assume responsibility for education were not sympathetic to the role of foreign missionaries or even Christian education and efforts were made to reduce the influence of churches on education and curriculum. However, the Christians involved in the system resisted these changes and the character of education here has largely survived.
On the other hand, the Rhodesian government established an education system designed to meet the needs of the small white population – no compromise was made in this area, state schools had excellent teachers, who were well paid, and were treated as an elite class in society. In return they created a small network of exclusive, exceptional schools that gave a world-class education to all white children. After 1950 when the first colleges were established, it was extended directly to the university, before that they went out of the country for university education.
When political pressure built, the Rhodesians extended the system for white students to a separate system for those of mixed race, Asian descent, and black elites. By the early 60s the system was the same size as the system for white children, the whole network was segregated but state schools universally followed high standards and many good professionals worked in the “African education” system.
The result was that by 1980, when independence was achieved, Zimbabwe had a well-educated black elite and the first cabinet contained 17 PhD graduates – many of whom were from first-class universities such as Princeton in the United States. The University of Zimbabwe awarded degrees that were fully recognized in the West.
But the new state took over the mission-based schools and with it came a decline in mission funding and support and many societies handed over and withdrew their schools. Many did not do so and a large number of good schools are still run by churches in the country. However, even today these organizations find it difficult to obtain work permits for foreign teachers for their schools. This is because (like its Rhodesian Front predecessors) ZANU PF is deeply suspicious of anyone operating in rural areas and is independent of their operations and control.
But with independence came a desire to expand education to all and resulted in a rush to expand the small state system by thousands of new schools. Enrollment expanded rapidly and a crash program of teacher training added thousands of new teachers to the system. Funding could not keep up and standards began to decline as experienced and qualified teachers left the service for greener pastures.
The early results of the expanded system were very exciting – literacy exceeded 95 percent of the population – the highest in Africa. The schools tried valiantly to maintain standards and at first they were successful but by the 1990s inadequate funding began to take its toll. Since then this process has accelerated and today many students emerge from our system neither functionally, nor literate or numerate.
In parallel our college and university system was massively expanded and this process continues even today – we currently have plans to set up another 4 universities even though we are not able to run the ones we already have. The result has been a decline in standards and last year's decision to award a PhD to the President's wife, after three months of work, was a new low point in the domestic system of higher and tertiary education. With almost no oversight, the international community has established a system of polytechnics that has been seen in every major town and city. Their performance has not been any better as funding has declined on a per capita basis.
The problem is actually very simple – we need to pay our teachers on the basis that they are an elite class and the main change agents in our society. I've done a simple calculation of what it would take to do this and I can't see doing it for less than $60 per month for each elementary school student, $100 per month for each secondary school student, and $200 per month for college and university students. This would mean that we would have to spend our entire budget of $4 billion per year on education and there would be nothing left for anything else. Obviously this isn't possible – so what's the solution?
Our private school system partly leads the way – a system of perhaps 5 percent of schools providing a high level of education at a cost of between $200 and $500 a month. These schools produce exceptional quality graduates and unfortunately most of them go on to study outside Zimbabwe, where universities consistently report that they have the best students and their fees are vital to maintaining the high standard of university education.
The problem remains in our primary and secondary system – inadequate funding and the problem of ensuring that all girls are brought into the system and given a real start in life. In my view these problems can only be solved by turning all schools over to the communities they serve and allowing parents to support the schools with their own resources.
This would mean that about a third of all students and perhaps three-quarters of all girls would need subsidies over and above those provided by the state. Only the international community can take up that task and in the context of the MDG goals, perhaps now is the time for international organizations to meet this challenge on a more systematic and long-term basis, until our own economy grows to the point where it can finance the system on its own.
Eddie Cross is the MDC MP for Bulawayo South. This article was first published www.eddiecross.africanherd.com