- Dear Family and Friends,
-
- Zimbabwean schools re-open this week amidst the most
diabolical of circumstances. Ever since being evicted from our farm in
September 2000, I have been paying the school fees of two of the children
whose parents once worked for us on our Marondera farm. In 2000, the junior
schools fees were $250 for one child for a term. In 2004 the same child,
still at the same junior school, was given a bill for forty five thousand
dollars. In addition, Linnet, the 10 year old girl, was told that she must
pay, like all the other children in the school, $4000 towards the electricity
costs of the institution. Linnet and her brother must also provide their
own exercise writing books. Between them they need 25 writing books which
cost $1.10 each in 2000 and now cost $1240 each. They were also told that
every writing book must be covered first in brown paper and then in plastic
or they will not be allowed in the classroom by the teacher.
-
- Linnet must also attend school in uniform - dress, socks,
jersey, hat and school shoes. In 2000 I bought Linnet's complete school
uniform, comprising two dresses, two pairs of socks, a jersey, hat and
school shoes. The whole bill came to $2800. In 2004 Linnet's school shoes
alone cost $90 000. Also required on the list from the school is sports
kit - shorts and T shirt -track shoes and different colour socks. The need
for a swimming costume has gone as the school pool has been emptied because
the chemicals are too expensive. Also gone is the need for a tennis racquet
as the school can not afford to replace the tattered net and the court
has been completely taken over by weeds and grass.
-
- Another child attending a government senior school showed
me the letter which accompanied his school fees for almost a quarter of
a million dollars at a rural government school. The letter, signed by the
headmaster, asked parents to donate: bricks, cement, roof sheets, candles,
jam, bread, maize meal, soap and even sugar for staff teas.
-
- The situation is the same in almost all rural government
schools and it is utterly tragic to see once beautiful government schools
falling apart at the seams. The buildings are unpainted, gutters gone or
falling off, window panes broken or missing, sporting facilities closed
or in tatters and exhausted underpaid teachers barely surviving on their
pathetic wages.
-
- And what is our government's response to this mayhem?
They complain about greedy headmasters, greedy uniform manufacturers and
the cost of importing fabric for school uniforms. They say nothing about
620% inflation which has caused this mayhem or about the fact that Zimbabwe
used to grow all its own cotton for school uniforms until farms were grabbed
in 2000.
-
- Linnet, a bright, lively child will be lucky to have
a desk to herself at school this term, let alone individual text books
that she can take home and study, not that she could carry them anyway
because a school suitcase or bag is completely unaffordable for her ex
farm worker parents, now scraping an existence in a still grossly over-crowded
communal land.
-
- It is an absolutely disastrous situation and I can hardly
bear to think how many hundreds of thousands of Zimbabwean children will
not be returning to school this year because their parents will simply
not be able to afford to educate them any more. Zimbabwe's political and
economic mayhem is condemning a generation of children to poverty and misery.
President Mugabe and his government promised Education For All by the year
2000. He is not in the country to comment at the moment as he is "holidaying"
in Malaysia and Indonesia.
-
- Until next week,
-
- with love, cathy.
-
- Copyright cathy buckle, 10th January 2004. <http://africantears.netfirms.com>http://africantears.netfirms.com
- My books on the Zimbabwean crisis, "African Tears"
and "Beyond Tears" are now available outside Africa from: <mailto:orders@africabookcentre.com>orders@africabookcentre.com
; <http://www.africabookcentre.com>www.africabookcentre.com ; <http://www.amazon.co.uk>www.amazon.co.uk
; in Australia and New Zealand: <mailto:johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au>johnmreed@johnreedbooks.com.au
; Africa: <http://www.kalahari.net>www.kalahari.net <http://www.exclusivebooks.com>www.exclusivebooks.com
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