Constitutional Right to Education Survey Report
The state of education in Zimbabwe and how the deterioration is affecting our children
It’s time for Collective Action to Save Education in Zimbabwe
“Education is a public good and fundamental human right recognised in Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and upheld in various international and regional human rights conventions and treaties”.
Section 27 of the national objectives and section 75 of the Bill of Rights, Chapter 2, on Education says the following:
(1) The State must take all practical measures to promote
(a) Free and compulsory basic education for children; and (b) higher and tertiary education.
(2) The State must take measures to ensure that girls are afforded the same opportunities as boys to obtain education at all levels.
Despite this Constitutional clause; consultations and surveys conducted by WOZA reveal substantial violations against the right to education by the state which is, overloading parents with a burden too heavy in this climate of economic chaos. This right is also negatively impacted by poor infrastructural development at schools, unqualified teaching personnel, limited and poorly managed resources being allocated to the education sector. Overburdened parents suffering unemployment are unable to participate fully in School Development Committees (SDC) where democratic structures, processes and procedures are not followed.
In assessing the extent of the crisis WOZA believe that no one person, organisation, political party, government department or school can solve this crisis but rather a comprehensive collective solution must be found.
WOZA therefore calls for a “Save Zimbabwe Education” national dialogue by all relevant stakeholders to chart a collective way forward. It’s time to ACT!
Introduction
In later 2015, Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) conducted a survey to determine the state of education and the impact on the lives of members and their children. Members of WOZA, like all Zimbabweans are very concerned about the deterioration in educational provision by government and its employees, the teachers, which means that most children are failing to access their constitutional right to a meaningful education. The failure in the education system has many negative consequences for individuals, for families and for the nation as a whole. WOZA member’s number over 100000 but the survey focused on organised structure of urban and rural adults and urban children. They were asked to provide their views on what problems they are experiencing in educating their children, to identify the specific rights abuses involved, and to try to develop a strategy on the way forward to make a contribution towards resolving these problems.
This report presents the findings; these are not quantitative, but qualitative, describing the abuses but not attempting to indicate the extent of each or the numbers of communities in which they exist. Responses to the survey have been categorised according to social groups; there are responses from urban adults, urban children, and rural adults. Thus they provide a snapshot picture of the situation that prevails in our schools from three different perspectives.
See the full report here Its time for collective action to save education to save our children WOZA Zimbabwe Report
see the previous report WOZA published on the state of education here http://wozazim.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/the-state-of-education-in-zimbabwe-woza-perspective1.pdf