GOVERNMENT has admitted that the education sector is facing various challenges after a top Education ministry official bemoaned underfunding by Treasury.
Primary and Secondary Education ministry secretary Moses Mhike said the ministry was surviving on a shoe-string budget, a situation which compromised service delivery and various operations.
Mhike said the ministry asked for ZWL$10 trillion for 2024, but has been promised ZWL$6,7 trillion, with a large chunk going towards salaries, leaving little for day-to-day operations.
“The envelope that we have been given for the year 2024 is around ZWL$6,7 trillion and out of that amount, ZWL$5,8 trillion is going for compensation, our wages and salaries. It then leaves us with something above a trillion to do all the things that we want to do as the ministry,” Mhike told journalists in Bulawayo. “We bidded for ZWL$10 trillion and we got ZWL$6,7 trillion, but we are not going to moan about that but we will do (have) our own funding options.”
Mhike also said provision of schools, especially in rural areas, was a challenge.
“As we are speaking, we still have other underserviced areas and resettlement areas which still don’t have schools. If you go to high-density areas in our cities, we also have what we call mega schools where we have an enrolment of 3 000, meaning this is a three-in-one,” said Mhike.
Mhike said the ministry was having challenges in so far as its administrative capacity was concerned.
“We have quite a lot of vacancies and one of the worrying vacancy levels that we have got is that of school inspectors. These are the people that should be going to our schools inspecting the teaching and learning. It’s an area that is worrying us as a ministry.”
- Delta Beverages loses Supreme Court appeal
- Zimbabwe’s new cyber law brought outlawed criminal defamation provisions back, say experts
- Zimbabwe’s new cyber law brought outlawed criminal defamation provisions back, say experts
- Chamisa’s CCC under siege as police block Marondera campaign rally
