By Kudzai Chikowore
If you go to Botswana today and visit their schools, you will know the number of teachers at a particular school by the number of cars parked outside. The same with South Africa.
In Zimbabwe it is depressing that teachers cannot afford to buy even bicycles because of the peanut salaries they get. Teachers also face poor working conditions and are no longer valued and respected. That is because the corrupt Zanu-PF government has destroyed the education sector.
Higher education also faces challenges. These include drop-outs, high tuition and accommodation fees, underfunding, staff shortages and economic decline, foreign currency shortages, hyperinflation and large public debt.
Lecturers and other staff are not given decent salaries or decent working conditions. Zimbabwean universities lack access to computer hardware and software in relation to information communication technologies. There is a shortage of skilled and experienced teaching staff, lack of proper infrastructure for teaching, and outdated libraries books.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his government failed to expand the education system by building schools in marginalised areas and disadvantaged urban centres. The government of Zimbabwe does not value education.
We can’t afford to have all teachers and lecturers leaving Zimbabwe for greener pastures in Botswana and South Africa.
President Mnangagwa is behaving like an untutored pupil by ignoring the urgent need for reform in education.
Kudzai Chikowore is a human rights activist based in London.
The Star