Education Ministry blows up budget in 6 months

Education Ministry blows up budget in 6 months

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By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S education ministry had a budget deficit of $5 billion this year due to high expenditure, the latest parliamentary report obtained Monday said.

In its first report on the ministry's budget performance, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education Sport and Culture said: "The committee was informed that even after receiving the additional funding from the supplementary budget, the ministry still had a budget deficit of $5 billion.

"By and large, the committee noted that the expenditure pattern of the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture was characterised by high expenditures, well above 50 percent target to June 2006."

The committee said the high expenditure was partly a result of the prevailing hyperinflationary environment.

"As a result of the budgetary constrains, the ministry failed to achieve its targets during the first six months of the 2006 financial year. The total half year expenditure stood at 81 percent of the total 2006 allocation," the parliamentary committee added.

Zimbabwe's education system, once hailed as one of the best in Africa, has been crumbling under the weight of a failing economy.

With the economy shrunk by more than a third in eight years in a crisis blamed on President Robert Mugabe's policies and unemployment at 80 percent -- many students have dropped out of school as parents can no longer afford the fees.

An average 200,000 school leavers join the job market yearly but a quarter of Zimbabwe's 12 million people -- including many skilled workers -- have been forced to seek a living abroad.
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