Fees hike latest blow on Zimbabwe education

Fees hike latest blow on Zimbabwe education

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By Fidelis Mhashu, MP

THE hike in fees at tertiary colleges is yet another blow to an already battered education system that has failed to address the nation’s needs.

Colleges increased their fees by over 100 percent this term against a backdrop of low incomes and inadequate student payouts. The MDC believes the right to education is a right for every child.

What the state-owned tertiary colleges are simply doing is to commercialize our children’s basic right to access quality education which should help enhance national development.

The MDC believes the right to tertiary education should not be a preserve of relatives and children of tycoons and dealers---the nouveau riche---but should be accessible to everyone regardless of their social standing.

It shows this government has a Rhodesian hangover, in which education was a preserve of the elite. It makes a mockery of the liberation struggle if our children have to suffer the ignominy of playing second fiddle to the rich and powerful when it comes to accessing tertiary education.

But the government’s creation of bottlenecks to make sure that the economically challenged students do not access tertiary education does not come as a surprise. The children of Cabinet ministers and senior government and Zanu PF officials are in colleges in Europe, the Americas and other continents around the world and these charlatans do not care a hoot if our children fail are unable to go to our own local colleges and universities.

We also note with dismay that the new fee structure was only announced last week and some students have been asked to pay the fees before month-end, well before their pittance that serves as their payouts has been disbursed. This is a recipe for disaster and is likely to spark student unrests, which have been the hallmark of our colleges ever since this regime lost touch with the students in the late 1980s. This regime’s gripe with the students is understandable. In 1988, the students rallied the nation in thwarting this regime’s desire to establish a one-party state in Zimbabwe.

The new fee structure is just one area characterizing the rot in the entire education system. The rot manifests itself in the shortage of textbooks in our schools and colleges, the low morale among our teachers and lecturers over inadequate salaries and poor working conditions, as well as the chaos and corruption at ZIMSEC. Our national universities and colleges have become a collective source of national shame, again characterized by dilapidated buildings and halls of residence, dysfunctional ablution and sewer systems, poor libraries and low staff and student morale.

What this government is doing is against the spirit of global and continental initiatives such as NEPAD, the Millennium Development Goals and the United Nations Charter, which acknowledge the right to education as a basic and fundamental right.

The MDC believes in academic freedom as well as quality education that is affordable to our children regardless of their social background. We believe that our children’s basic rights such as education should never be compromised for political expediency. We believe in people power to pressure this regime to pave way for a new Zimbabwe and a new beginning.

Fidelis Mhashu is the Member of Parliament for Chitungwiza and an education spokesman for the MDC
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