The Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) has described Government’s reported plans to roll out free education beginning this school term as an election season narrative.
Recently, deputy minister of primary and secondary education Edgar Moyo was quoted in the State media saying the rollout of the free education scheme would be gradual.
In a statement, ARTUZ said the macro-economic situation in the country is far from achieving State funded basic education because the budget allocations fall short.
“The claim to us came as dishonesty and propaganda because within the statements by Deputy Minister Of education Edgar Moyo exposed contradiction and election season narrativism. A look at the budgetary allocations viz the macro-economic situation show that the nation is still far from achieving state funded basic education.
“This is because the allocations fall short of addressing the constitutional provision, effectively, the proposed budget reflects a continued reliance on parents and families, who are likely to continue to bear the brunt of financing the Education Sector Programs. This signifies that government will continue to rely on user fees (levies) for the day-to-day school operations.
“Overall, the budget does not provide a clear mechanism on how the country will implement free state funded basic education. The government has made many pronunciations to this effect yet the reflections on the ground point to a different direction,” ARTUZ said.
The teacher union said parental contribution will remain large and worsen the prevailing differences of spending.
“The Lack of a clear funding mechanism for a gradual move towards state-funded education further raises equity concerns. Parental contribution is likely to remain large with the capacity to finance education varying between family incomes. This will further exacerbate the already existing wide variation of actual spending per learner at school level which largely depends on household income. Students from poorer families are thus likely to continue facing the risk of dropping out and/or not completing school,” ARTUZ said.
