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Elliot Ziwira

Senior Writer

The Second Republic, under the servant leadership of President Mnangagwa, has made huge strides in the delivery of quality education to Zimbabwean schoolchildren in the past five years, notwithstanding the Covid-19 pandemic, which played havoc on global economies.  

Taking cognisance of what constitutes a learning institution, at least 1 194 primary and secondary schools were established countrywide during that period in line with the Government’s quest to reduce the distance walked by learners to and fro, and ensure access to education for the people of Zimbabwe.

Also, the number of teachers for Early Childhood Development (ECD), primary and secondary levels have increased significantly between 2017 and 2021, thus, reducing the teacher-learner ratio across the sectors.

This comes on the backdrop of increased demand for education owing to the expansionary policy embarked on since Independence in 1980. Lack of adequate schools has often exposed parents seeking enrolment for their children to dodgy private school owners.

Historical background

“Education must constitute the basis of Man’s development of his vocational, cultural and political growth”, affirms Karl Marx.

 An ideal education system, therefore, should strive to build a complete individual with the agency to probe the reasons for being as well as interrogate the world around him/her without having to kowtow to political whim through adherence to inflexible set curricula.

He/she should be able to contribute to his own vocational, cultural and political growth and that of the broader constituencies that make it possible to change outcomes for the common good.  

The colonial education system was a repressive non-thinking machine subtly designed to keep the African poor; physically, politically, socially, spiritually, mentally and psychologically.

It was a collective project that taught black people to be docile and obedient consumers of instructions dubiously called knowledge or education.

The teacher in such a system is erroneously depicted as someone with control and ownership of knowledge, which knowledge he/she can either hold or give in relation to set rules of compliance, with his/her charges portrayed as automatons requiring guidance from the “master”, thus justifying colonialism as an enlightenment vehicle.

The deliberate colonial tilt was for whites, whose education was made compulsory and free up to university level. 

The syllabuses were also mischievously distinct, so that the colour bar could be discernible with the master-servant relationship heightened.

There were schools meant for white children only, where a different culture aimed at uplifting the settler community was pursued at the expense of the African.

This status quo was disrupted by the Government at Independence in April 1980 through the Ministry of Education and Culture headed by Dzingai Mutumbuka.  

Fay Chung would also make great strides in the late 1980s and early 1990s in ascertaining the complete decolonisation of the African through education in all its variables.

In 1952, 62 years after settler occupation, there was no secondary school for coloureds and Asiatics (Asians), and one high school (Goromonzi established in 1946) for Africans.

 In 1968, there were only six secondary schools for Africans two of which offered Advanced-Level classes. Only two percent of black children were allowed into Form One, and only one percent were allowed into O-Level. Just a handful of those allowed into O-Level could make it to A-Level.

In a quest to better their lot, and conscious of the bottleneck system against them, the two percent of black children allowed into Form One would achieve at least a 70 percent pass rate through hard work and determination.

The colonial agenda was to see to it that blacks would not outnumber whites at university. In the 1960s, only a third of the 300 students at the University of Zimbabwe (University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland), which opened its doors in 1952, were blacks and less than a dozen of them were Asians and coloureds.   

Population of learners in primary and secondary schools

Although the number of schools has increased exponentially since Independence in 1980, the demand for education also kept on surging.

Furthermore, the post-2000 Land Reform Programme saw more satellite schools being constructed.

According to Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Statistics Report 2021, the projected school-going population in Zimbabwe, constituting learners between three and 18 years, is 6 694 618, with 50,23 percent of them being females and 49,77 percent male. It is clear that the tilt is in favour of the girl child, who has been sidelined in the past.

Notably, a significant demographic component of Zimbabweans is in primary and secondary schools.     

As illustrated in the table below, the estimated school-going age population for both sexes captures the four major stages of education, which are, Infant, Junior, Lower Secondary and Upper Secondary: 

The table above shows that 3 362 589 (50, 23 percent) female learners and 3 332 029 (49, 77 percent) males were enrolled in Zimbabwean schools in 2021. The highest number of school-going age population (2 358 630) is in the Infant level, that is, from ECD A to Grade 2 (3-7 years), while the lowest number (707 071) is in upper secondary school. Across the levels of the education system there are more females than males, except for the upper secondary level.

In comparison, 819 586 learners (437 685 males and 381 901 females) were enrolled in primary school in 1979, while 74 320 were in secondary school. For secondary school, the number increased to 661 369 in 1990 (378 115 males and 283 254 females) and 979 644 in 2014. The figures subsequently surged to 1 093 550 (Form One-Form Six) in 2018 with almost equal numbers for males and females.

At least 203 418 girls were enrolled in primary school in 1982, although 28 percent of them dropped out by the time they got to Grade 7. In 1981, 231 711 girls enrolled and 59, 3 percent dropped out before Form One in 1988.

Enrolment in primary school gained on the 1990 figures (2 083 506) to 2 725 970 pupils (1 356 828 females and 1 369 142 males) in 2018, with females constituting 49, 77 percent. 

Of this number three quarters (70 percent) were in rural areas. About 70 percent of pupils in secondary school were enrolled in rural areas in 2018.

The slant towards the provision of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centres or pre-schools paid off. In 2018, there were 6 242 schools with Early Childhood Development (ECD) facilities, and a total of 6 288 primary schools.

Number of schools in Zimbabwe

Independence saw the number of primary and secondary schools, including those providing Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC), significantly increasing.

The number of ECEC centres or pre-schools increased between 2017 and 2021, as captured in the table below:

In 2017, there were 6 123 primary schools with 6 071 of them offering Education and Childhood Development (ECD) facilities.

By 2021, there were 7 081 primary schools, 7 057 of which with ECD, while the number of secondary schools increased from 2 830 in 2017 to 3 066 in 2021, according to the latest statistics report.

Therefore, 958 primary schools were built between 2017 and 2021, while 236 secondary schools were constructed in the same period, totalling 1 194 in four years.

As of 2021, there were 10 147 primary and secondary schools in Zimbabwe.

In 1980, there were 2 401 primary schools and 177 secondary schools in the country, making a total of 2 578.

Covid-19 and the teacher establishment

Because the Government considers education as a basic human right necessary for social, political, cultural and economic development, it remains committed to the sector.

To that end, measures have been put in place to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio through deployment of teachers to all the country’s 10 provinces. Although the Covid-19 pandemic, which has wreaked economies across the world since 2019, collapsed the traditional classroom, the learning environment largely remained conducive to teachers and learners alike.

 In the new normal, where the virtual teacher takes centre stage, the Government, along with parents and learners, had to rise to the occasion, not only for the sake of creating a favourable learning environment, but also to give impetus to the new thrust in knowledge acquisition.

The collapsing of walls created platforms that disrupted the old school system in which the teacher has to be physically present as the only source of knowledge. New forms of learning, regardless of physical location, had to be sought, where learners and parents were encouraged to tap into the pool of shifting knowledge sources.

They had to be well-informed on where to go, why, when and how. However, as the need to curb the spread of the new coronavirus became imperative, lockdowns were enforced, which left authorities, parents and learners in a quandary.

Classrooms without walls mean that a new teacher or facilitator becomes the one in vogue, yet access to him or her, or what constitutes learning in the new normal has been problematised.

With online becoming the in-thing, the issue of access remains itchy. It cannot be overemphasised that internet access does not come cheap, especially where learners are far-flung and compliant gadgets are scantily available.

Even where physical contact may be possible, the need to maintain social distancing arises. That is where the teacher-pupil ratio comes in.

Nonetheless, there are different platforms on which the virtual teacher can be accessed. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education came up with radio lessons and other online learning platforms in the quest to mitigate the situation.

Audio-visual aids remain the trademarks of learning, only that today’s learner is spoilt for choice, since the world has been reduced to a single global village.

Although the future of learning looks more digital than ever, the classroom, in its traditional form, remains largely standing. It refuses to buckle, particularly in the case of developing countries like Zimbabwe.

That is why the issue of teachers is central to the education system in the country. At Independence in 1980, the quest for social justice through righting past wrongs created gaps in human capital as more teachers were required.

To date, there are 17 937 ECD teachers, 80 175 primary school teachers and 48 740 secondary school teachers, summing up to 146 852, according to the MoPSE 2021 report. In 2017, the numbers were 14 937, 71 242 and 45 750 for ECD, primary and secondary schools, respectively.

Between 2017 and 2019, the number of teachers increased annually, for the three levels in the education system. However, while the number of teachers increased at primary level, it decreased for both ECD and secondary levels.

The number of teachers at all the three levels increased in 2021, which testifies to the Government’s commitment to the education sector.

About 73,58 percent of the 17 937 ECD teachers are trained, an increase on the 2017 figures. In 2017, 52,92 percent were trained, and the figure increased significantly between 2017 and 2021. The teacher-learner ratios for ECD for all teachers and trained teachers stands at 37 and 50, respectively.

In 2017, 97,42 percent of primary teachers were trained. As of 2021, 97,62 percent of the 80 175 primary teachers were trained. However, the proportion decreased to 97,14 percent in 2018, before rising annually to a high of 97,77 percent between 2018 and 2020, the report notes. It dropped to 97,62 in 2021.

For primary school level, the teacher-learner ratio is 36 for all teachers and 37 exclusive of untrained teachers.

States the report: “The current primary school TLRs inclusive of all teachers and exclusive of untrained teachers are 36 and 37, respectively. During the period 2017-2021, the TLRs inclusive of all primary school teachers were in the range of 36 to 38, while TLRs for the trained were ranging from 37 to 39. The marginal difference between the primary school TLRs for all teachers and for trained teachers only is attributed to a primary school teaching staff complement that is mostly trained.

 “Furthermore, the TLRs for both all trained and the trained are within the threshold recommended by the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education.”

Of the 48 740 secondary school teachers, 89, 66 percent are trained. In 2017, 83.77 percent of the teachers were trained. The teacher-learner ratios for all teachers and trained teachers in secondary school are 22 and 25, respectively.

Number of teachers by level, training, learner to teacher ratio trends, number and percentage in Zimbabwe, 2017-2021(Source: Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Statistics Report 2021)

As illustrated in the table above, the teacher-learner ratio for all teachers range from 22 to 24, while those for the trained are in the range 25 to 28:

Teachers have been trained, and continue to be trained in Information Communication Technology (ICT), thus benefiting thousands of learners in primary and secondary schools across the country, who are now computer literate. Efforts have also been made to provide schools, especially those in rural schools, with computers.

Today, Zimbabwe has 13 polytechnics, 13 teachers’ colleges, 43 vocational training centres and up to 16 quasi-government and independent research institutions. The figures are in addition to 13 State universities and seven private ones.