By Dr Takavafira Zhou.
Harare, Zimbabwe. (News of The South) Schools have remained closed for second term because of covid 19, and prospects for opening schools on 28 July 2020 as envisaged by gvt remain far fetched and remote given government failure to procure and distribute requisite equipments to combat covid 19 effects.
What has surprised all and sundry is the enunciation by the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Cain Matema, to the effect that pupils will be forced to pay fees for second term. This is at best a fantasy and at worst callous, irresponsible, provocative and outright thievery by government. It is government responsibility to invest in quality Public education, and the investment in covid 19 abatement is no exception.
It is clear that the Minister is far detached from the capricious vagaries that have befallen the generality of Zimbabweans during the covid 19 induced lockdown where the majority of Zimbabweans who hitherto eked a meagre existence through informal means given the inherent 95% unemployment rate, have been reduced to extreme poverty and penury. To ask such parents to pay fees for their children who are still at their homes is to raise Satan in them. This is a language parents understand very well, and the greatest act of educational provocation ever seen in human history and calls for equal and opposite reaction by parents.
What many parents and teachers who have all tested positive to poverty may want to know is whether this is coming from Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Matema’s fertile imagination or else it’s a cabinet decision? If it’s a cabinet decision then it is reflective of the poverty of leadership in Zimbabwe. If it’s the Minister’s and his entourage’s decision, then they must still be realigned to the harsh exigencies of life experienced by the generality of Zimbabwean populace. Worse still the decision has been taken without engaging parents and is therefore a one armed banditry product. The Minister cannot certainly urinate on parents and tell them it’s raining, never, never, ever.
Zanu pf that fought a protracted liberation war against the Rhodesian Front cannot behave like RF and front neo-liberal policies that sacrifice the generality of the poor people in Zimbabwe. Has the revolution lost it’s way? It is our submission as Ptuz that the country is taken forward by those who understand the suffering and aspirations of common people, those who speak the language of poor people. The earlier President Mnangagwa reigns on Minister Matema, the better for the poor people of Zimbabwe.
Minister Matema’s command education will not work, and neither will his homelitic bellicose. It is provocative and a security threat to the nation. It is tantamount to cold and caliculated educational vandalism and will be resisted by poor parents, be they peasants, teachers, lecturers, soldiers, police, CIO, nurses, doctors etc. Our humble submission is that if at all schools would open this year, they must never pay fees for second term which is as good as over. An opening in September and payment of fees only for third term is more realistic given the hardships faced in scavenging for fees and mammoth task involved in mobilising resources by government in order to guarantee the health and safety of teachers, pupils and ancillary staff.
To be forewarned is to be forearmed. Those in leadership must act in a responsible manner, and must never continue to heap burning coals on the heads of poor people. Never underestimate the pent up forces of the poor bottled up over a long period. Lastly, it is only the guarantee of health and safety of teachers and pupils, let alone welfare of teachers that can ensure that schools would open, when ever they will. As of now there is virtually nothing that indicate that schools will open this year as government is evading its responsibility of making this a reality.
Venceremos
Dr Takavafira M. Zhou (Ptuz President)
Comments
About Author
