ZIMBABWE

HISTORY & BACKGROUND

Zimbabwe is a republic with an area of 390,759 sq. km. (150,873 sq. mls.) and a population, based on the year 2000 estimates, of approximately 11.5 million that consists of the following ethnic groups: Karanga, Zezuru, Manyika, Ndau, Korekore (known collectively as Shona, 71 percent) and Ndebele (16 percent), as well as white (1 percent), Asian and mixed (1 percent) and other (11 percent). In terms of the age structure, 39.64 percent are between 0 and 14 years (female, 2,222,277; male, 2,274,128), 56.82 percent are 15 to 64 years (female, 3,192,888; male, 3,251,860) and 3.54 percent are 65 years or older (female, 197,340; male 204,028). The major indigenous languages are Shona and Ndebele, with English serving as the commercial language. Zimbabwe is land locked and bordered by Mozambique on the east, South Africa on the south, Botswana to the southeast, Angola and the Republic of Congo to the northwest, and Zambia on the north. Reports on unemployment vary from 35 to 60 percent.

The Shona and Ndebele people lost their land and many human rights during the European partition of Africa, as the native groups were separately subjugated by British settlers in 1890. Further colonial repression was inflicted upon them collectively after their defeat during the 1893 war of liberation (Chimurenga War I), the first unified Shona-Ndebele war of resistance against colonialism. Subsequently, the British settlers named the country Southern Rhodesia, after Cecil John Rhodes, and introduced a system of separate development for blacks and whites that was enforced through a racist educational system. Missionaries introduced formal education before colonialism in 1867, when they opened the first missionary school. This early missionary education mostly catered to the sons of chiefs.

The government's Education Ordinance of 1899 provided grants-in-aid for mission schools, and some enrolled African students. Colonial education philosophy, content, structure, and administration for Africans, which began in the twentieth century with the enactment of the Native Education Ordinance of 1907, continued for 20 years until Zimbabwean independence. The act instituted guidelines for establishing four-year private elementary schools and was accompanied by school construction land grants. The education program was very restrictive, combining religious instruction, basic industrial technical training, and academics. For the first 40-year colonial period, the major players in the development of African education were the missionaries, who operated the schools, and the Africans themselves, who contributed to building the schools, providing school supplies, and purchasing textbooks. Other than state policy making, the government's role entailed extending financial aid just to cover teacher salaries.

Zimbabwe achieved colonial status in 1923. Soon after, the British government began to transform its role in African education by establishing the Department of Native Education in 1927 and subsequently passing the Education Act of 1929. The act 1) allowed poor students to work for their tuition after school hours and during vacations; 2) extended grants-in-aid to schools for students with disabilities; and 3) introduced African teacher training. It is important to note, however, that colonial administrators did not intend to educate the Africans to the extent that they would challenge the oppressive colonial rule and compete with whites (Kawewe 1986). Thus, the government of Godfrey Huggins used the worldwide Great Depression as an excuse to oppose and eliminate all other educational facilities for Africans except for elementary education, leading to a drastic decline in enrollment that reached 100,000 fewer students in 1929.

After World War II, a 10-year education plan for the period 1947 to 1956 was established that resulted in a considerable expansion in primary education. Enrollment shot up to 164,000 when government policies began to change, and during that period, the first secondary school for Africans, Goromonzi, was actually built near Salisbury, (now Harare). Previously, Africans had acquired secondary and higher education from South Africa's black mine schools and overseas. Those few graduates of foreign programs then filled the only two positions available to blacks: clergyman or teacher. After Goromonzi opened, various missionary organizations followed suit and opened their own secondary schools, which enrolled approximately 600 students by 1949. The Kerr Commission appointed by the government to reassess the thorny issue of African education made progressive recommendations that were never implemented.

CONSTITUTIONAL & LEGAL FOUNDATIONS

In 1953, under the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, African education re-emerged as a sensitive issue. Godfrey Huggins' successor, Garfield Todd, was a strong supporter of African education and implemented several progressive policies for blacks before being ousted in 1958. However, the settler government that followed Todd did not abandon his progressive policies, using them as part of its political strategy so as not to alienate the British Colonial Office, which would have jeopardized independence negotiations. The federation even lied to further its cause by offering educational statistics that showed that 86 percent of school-age children were in primary school, when in fact the accurate figure was 60 percent.

In 1956, another Five-Year Plan was implemented. It called for five years of education for children up to age 14 in rural areas, an annual rural elementary school increase of 60 pupils, and eight years of schooling for urban children, not over 14 years old when reaching standard four. These restrictions forced many parents to forge birth certificates by altering their children's ages and birthplaces so that their children could gain admission into a school. In 1980, the Zimbabwean government acknowledged that many young people's education had been interrupted by the liberation war and by racist policies and thus refused to implement any such barriers to education.

Government education planning emphasized separate education rather than the provision of equal education between Africans and white settlers, as shown in the Native Education Act of 1959. In 1964 and 1965, Ian Smith's government was at the center of the country's unilateral declaration of independence, which changed the education administrative structure by creating a unified Ministry of Education. The ministry retained the separate divisions for blacks and Europeans, coloureds (interracial persons), and Asians. A new plan calling for compulsory education for all Africans was unsuccessful, as the government's ambitious plan was doomed to failure by a budget allocation of only 2 percent of the GNP for education. It was expected that any needed additional funds would come from private sources and voluntary organizations, but that did not happen.

White settlers launched many efforts to become independent, which lead to the development of a constitution in 1961. Four years later, the settlers' government issued a unilateral declaration of independence. The protracted Chimurenga II War followed the declaration and lasted from 1966 to 1979. Britain and the international community levied sanctions against Rhodesia, which set in motion a chain of sweeping sociopolitical events, such as the Lancaster House Conference Agreement. That agreement culminated in a new constitution on December 21, 1979, and full independence for the newly named Zimbabwe in 1980. In the first decade following independence, Zimbabwe experienced a period of economic development. Since the early 1990s, however, it has suffered through a time of major economic deterioration that was worsened by the adoption of economic structural adjustment programs.

Education and workforce policies that existed during the colonial era were essentially designed to ensure the existence of cheap and unskilled African labor. This was accomplished in two ways. First, colonial governments left education essentially in the hands of Christian missions, and second, the educational system that was offered was not technically or vocationally oriented. These two characteristics contributed to the present social, economic, and political problems in Zimbabwe. The colonial educational system has been criticized for being too literary and too classical to be useful. In 1978 the Ministry of Education and Culture combined its former divisions of European, African, Coloured, and Asian education into one structure and endorsed that structure in the Education Act of 1979, thus establishing a nonracial educational policy a year before independence.

Despite attaining independence and two decades of development efforts, Zimbabwe has retained and expanded educational and sociopolitical infrastructures that were inherited from the colonial era. Once independent, Zimbabwe's education philosophy entailed a humanistic approach that emphasized promoting national development; a wider participatory process; sociopolitical, economic, and technology changes; and the overall culture of the nation. This was necessary for the moral, educational and material advancement of the majority of its population, as well as for the citizens to obtain equality, dignity, justice and liberty.

EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM—OVERVIEW

Compulsory Education: The 1979 Education Act, which has undergone various amendments, defines aims and objectives, structures, and types of school programs, as well as evaluation and assessment procedures and ongoing scheduling. Although the act originally abolished compulsory education, the government of Zimbabwe reinstated compulsory universal primary education for every school-age child. However there was never any mechanism in place to enforce that policy particularly in remote rural areas that are home to the majority of Zimbabwe's residents. Even without enforcement, the policy led to large increases in enrollment, increases that were so large, in fact, that at the end of the policy's first six years, the secondary, tertiary and higher educational systems, as well as the labor market, were stretched past capacity. The result was a shortage of available spaces and strict competition for the few that were in the secondary schools. Enrollment levels in primary education remain high in present times, which uses up a large share of the education budget.

Independent Zimbabwe has made great strides in racial integration in schools, with the exception of a few private institutions. Private schools continue to receive government subsidies, while former European schools continue to charge fees and are zoned only in certain geographic areas. These schools mainly cater to the children of elite families who can afford to pay high fees.

Enrollment: The 1979 Education Act was amended to change the standard model of education from 8+4+2+4 (eight years in primary school, four years in secondary school, two years in high school, and four years in university) to a new model of 7+4+2+4. It reduced elementary primary education by one year, with other time periods remaining the same. The primary focus of elementary and high school education is to enhance the united nonracial and egalitarian society that accepts critical thinking and has a curriculum that features a combination of ideology, science, technology, and mathematics. However, the inherited education system—which still uses British-oriented examination boards—retains a highly academic and elitist curriculum and also continues to feature a restrictive selection process that determines who enters higher education and excels beyond.

The education system is exam-oriented, with automatic promotion from one grade to the next in a seven-year elementary education cycle that concludes with a national school leaving examination. While primary and Junior Certificate exams are constructed and administered locally, the Zimbabwe Ministry of Education and Culture, in conjunction with the University of Cambridge local examination syndicate, develops "O-" (University of Cambridge Ordinary level) and "A-" (University of Cambridge advanced) level exams.

Academic Year & Language of Instruction: The Zimbabwean school year runs from January to December, with approximately 188 days spent in school. The academic calendar for tertiary education and higher generally runs from March to December. The primary and official medium of instruction is English (even though the use of vernacular is permitted in early primary education), and students also learn at least one of the two major native languages.

Curriculum Development: Zimbabwe's curriculum is centralized and is determined by subject panels of teachers, education officers, and representatives from the teachers' association, universities, churches, and other stakeholder groups. The Curriculum Development Unit within the Ministry of Education and Culture coordinates the subject panels. Elementary school curriculum includes mathematics, English, agricultural and environmental science, physical education, social studies, moral and religious education, music, craft and art, and the indigenous languages (Ndebele and Shona). Indigenous tribal languages of the Kalanga, Tonga, Shangaan, Venda, and Nambya are taught during the first three years of elementary education within their communities.

Whereas one primary school teacher is assigned to teach all subjects in a class, in high school, there are various experts specializing in particular subjects. There is a compulsory core curriculum for secondary education up to O-level consisting of English, mathematics, and science. After the core courses, students take electives, as time allows. At A-level, the curriculum is more specialized, as students choose either the sciences or humanities. Within either track, a student and various schools can freely make any combination of three subjects. However, depending on the school timetable, combinations of subjects across tracks is possible. Some secondary schools teach foreign languages such as Afrikaans and French. The Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) and private publishing companies prepare learning materials and textbooks. However, the CDU concentrates more on education quality control than material development. Schools have discretionary powers to select appropriate materials within the CDU-recommended and approved materials. There is increased and improved Internet use in distance education, particularly in tertiary and higher education.

Beginning with the 1990s, there has been an increased emphasis on creating research-based curriculum development and on improving teacher-effective use of materials. Making educational material more userfriendly and affordable is a challenge for this millennium. There has been ongoing research into and evaluation of education endeavors. Initially, evaluation efforts were carried out by the government and various stakeholders, such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Swedish International Development agency (SIDA). Thus the Ministry of Policy Planning and Evaluation Unit assessed whether resources were available to expand educational facilities and implemented the expansion in a timely and effective manner, overseeing construction and the provision of adequate instructional materials and teaching staff. Similarly the donors were concerned about the capacity of the ministry to implement its ambitious educational programs and to ensure that the donors' money was utilized just as it had been allocated.

Since the end of the 1980s, there have been various evaluative studies on learning achievement and on the efficacy of foreign donor interventions in improving teaching and learning; on the appropriateness of the curricula; on gender issues; on teacher motivation; and on the impact of untrained teachers on students' performance. Since the 1990s, the World Bank has commissioned research and evaluative studies on factors associated with learning achievements. Zimbabwe's universities have also undertaken research on these issues. In addition, the Research Council of Zimbabwe engages in research as a development tool and makes its findings available to scholars and policy-makers. Projects funded in that manner include UNICEF's primary-teacher-training distance education program, as well as a multipurpose program expanding and monitoring childhood development and survival. Dissemination and evaluation of appropriate technology use for promoting program objectives is ongoing.

PREPRIMARY & PRIMARY EDUCATION

Generally, the children of well-to-do urbanites attend preschool between the ages of three and seven. Preschool education in rural areas is scarce and irregular, even though establishing preschool facilities has been part of the government's initiatives. While the local communities assume the major responsibility of operating preschools, the government's involvement entails training, management and supervision, and paying small allowances to teachers.

A shortage of amenities has led to poor building conditions and a lack of furniture for school children to sit on in many schools. The enrollment rate of girls is in decline in some remote districts. Teachers are often underpaid, and in some cases they are not paid for several months. This trend has frustrated teachers and caused a lot of them to seek alternative, well-paying jobs or even leave for other nations, thus reducing the number of trained teachers.

Public schools are coeducational. There are generally five hours of in-class instruction and three hours of structured out-of-class activities. In 1990, there were approximately 2.1 million students enrolled in a total of 4,559 primary schools. While primary education has been free since independence was achieved in 1992, sliding-scale tuition fees were introduced as a cost-recovery measure to cater to different socioeconomic groups; disadvantaged rural communal areas were exempt from such fees. The urban council districts have a better infrastructure than the rural ones, with the commercial farming and mining areas not as well provided. Parents in disadvantaged rural areas do not pay fees, but they contribute to education by volunteering to work in various school projects. Between 1980 and the 1990s, Zimbabwe experienced tremendous growth in indigenous enrollment in primary schools (grades 1 through 7). In 1994, for example, 76 percent of the Zimbabwean population had acquired fifth grade education. Figures from the Zimbabwe Central Statistical Office (1997) indicate that in 1993, the number of pupils attending primary and secondary schools was equivalent to 86 percent of children in the relevant age group (male 90 percent, female 81 percent). The number of primary schools rose from 2,411 at independence in 1980 to 4,633 in 1995.

The government created facilities and school-level structures at district, provincial, and national levels for children with disabilities. The schools are either separate for students with severe disabilities, or integrated into the mainstream schools and classes for those with less severe physical or mental challenges. A major limitation to integration has been the lack of trained teachers. However, integration has started to improve, as the teachers' colleges are increasingly training special education teachers. Some churches and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) cater to students with various disabilities.

SECONDARY EDUCATION

Zimbabwe's secondary school system entails six years divided in three stages (2+2+2). Students earn the Zimbabwean Junior and Cambridge "O-" and "A-" level certificates at the end of each two-year study period and meet qualification standards for entry into the next level. The system of "bottlenecking" eliminates many students from entering the next level if they fail the national qualifying exam or do not pass enough subjects. The "O-" level offers the most studies in a secondary school system that offers approximately 120 subject areas. "O-" and "A-" levels do not necessarily offer the same subjects. The major subjects are English (which is also the medium of instruction), Shona, Sindebele, French, Portuguese, Spanish, biology, history, mathematics, economics, economic history, ancient history, chemistry, physics, and computing science. Additionally, students can choose to participate in extracurricular activities such as netball, tennis, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, rugby and athletics.

Earning appropriate scores on "O-" level exams qualifies a student to either enter the university or enroll in A-level, which is exclusively designed as preparation for university education. Government secondary schools are coeducational, with only church schools being single sex. Secondary boarding schools are more popular because of their increased success rate in general examinations. Because of cultural practices that devalue the education of girls, more boys than girls are in high school. The school year is the same as that of elementary education, but with eight hours of study.

Depending on the type of school, fees are charged for secondary school education. Whether the school is government or private, urban or rural, boarding or day school, determines the fee. Private schools are the most expensive. Although the government policy is that no child should be denied an education because his or her parents are too poor to pay, in reality parents are responsible for paying most of the secondary school tuition and other activity fees. Foreign students also attend the secondary schools, including the children of international ambassadorial staff, visiting scholars, refugees, and expatriates. Declining economic conditions, which were exacerbated by military expenditures accrued by intervening in neighboring wars, have depleted the government's resources for subsidizing the education of poor children.

Between 1980 and 1992, Zimbabwe's secondary enrollment increased by 87 percent. The Zimbabwe Central Statistical Office indicated that secondary enrollment in 1997 was equivalent to 44 percent of the appropriate age-cohort (male, 49 percent; female, 39 percent). The number of secondary schools also increased from 177 in 1980 to 1,535 in 1995.

HIGHER EDUCATION

Many students pursue tertiary education in teachers' training colleges and over 300 technical training institutions. Up until 1956, when the University College of Salisbury (University of Zimbabwe) was established, higher education was sought outside the country. As of 2001, there were 11 universities in the nation, both state-run and privately owned. Some former colleges have been transformed into universities. While the average stay at the university is four years, many colleges and technical institutions provide training that ranges from one year to three years. Depending on the program, the minimum entry requirements for the universities are five O-levels or at least A-level passes in two subjects, including English. Admission into a university or college is highly competitive. In 1997 there were 46,495 students attending institutions of higher education. Universities offer various diplomas at both the undergraduate and the graduate level in fields such as agriculture, sociology, social work, medicine, commerce, arts, English, education, engineering, science, law, veterinary science, and social studies.

The Zimbabwean government plays a major role in higher education by influencing policy, funding, establishing programs, and determining curricula, especially in agricultural, teachers', and polytechnic colleges, which are operated through the government's administrative structure. The government approves or establishes schools and colleges and influences or determines who teaches in them. University councils, through university senates and faculty boards, govern their campuses, but the University of Zimbabwe traditionally monitors the quality of higher education throughout the country and approves syllabi for polytechnics and teachers' colleges. The University of Zimbabwe and a teacher's association started in 1950, the Associate College Center, supervise teacher education through a program that has been extended to cover only degree programs at polytechnics. Universities assume multiple roles concerning education, research, supervision, and extension course. The extension and supervisory roles are fairly nontraditional ones in which universities regularly offer courses to the general public in various areas of expertise. The courses include solar energy, gardening, and so forth. While the teachers' colleges have strong ties to their major employer—the government—agricultural and polytechnic colleges traditionally have strong ties with the farming industry and manufacturing, trade, and commerce respectively. Many universities have ties with all sectors, and most have a variation of a joint industry-university committee that caters to both the workforce and program needs of industry and the university.

Although foreign students are found in all faculties, the majority of them are found in engineering, veterinary science, and medicine. Universities select teaching faculty through selection boards chaired by the vicechancellor or pro-vice-chancellor, the dean, the deputy dean, and the chairperson of the department in question. Graduate study is provided by many of the universities in Zimbabwe. These are classified into those that provide coursework and a thesis program leading to master's degrees in arts, science, or business, and those that provide research-only degrees, such as doctoral degrees (which are called D.Phil. degrees). Admission requirements for master's programs are an undergraduate degree in a specified area, and the doctoral admission requirements are an earned master's in a particular area of specialization. Master's degrees take from one to three years, while doctoral degrees take a minimum of two to three years, depending on whether a student is part-time or full-time.

Vocational Education: Polytechnic and technical institutions represent another major sector of higher education. Because of the stagnant economy's inability to absorb new workers since the 1980s, and because of general unemployment, there has been a greater need to impart and expand technical, vocational, accounting, and management skills education in secondary schools and through tertiary education. Thus business and technical education was introduced at secondary school level as an extension of the general education curriculum, with subject kits distributed to schools lacking in workshop facilities. Each school has different specialties, such as automotive, civil, building, electrical, mechanical, or production engineering; agriculture; printing; graphic arts; teaching; business education; technology; science; mass communications; library and information science; computer science; hotel management; commerce, and adult education. Each school's main purpose is to equip graduates with effective job skills to create a trained workforce comprised of individuals eager to help the economy by working or starting a small business.

ADMINISTRATION, FINANCE, & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

The Zimbabwean government plays a dominant role in shaping policy and administering and financing education, even though local district councils and voluntary organizations such as churches privately own the majority of schools. It assumes the primary responsibility for administering education through the Ministry of Education and Culture, which is in charge of primary and secondary education; and the Ministry of Higher Education, which is responsible for tertiary education. These ministries are complemented by the Department of National Scholarships in the President's Office. The Ministry of Education and Culture also pays teachers and allocates government school buildings, as well as instructional materials, and it appoints public and private school teachers. The ministry's support for private schools is in the form of building grants and tuition assistance that is channeled through the appropriate committees and authorities. Subject panels define a centralized curriculum.

While the majority of teachers are civil servants, private schools can hire additional teachers in order to improve the teacher-student ratios, and such practices are common, especially among the private schools that serve the children of elite whites and blacks. Administration, supervision, and staffing are decentralized on the regional, district, and local school levels. Most schools are privately owned by individuals, local government, churches, and committees and boards. The district councils administer the communal lands where the majority of Zimbabweans live and attend school.

With the exception of some teacher-training, secretarial, and commercial colleges and universities, the government runs most tertiary education institutions and it also hires and pays lecturers. Universities are autonomous, with some operating entirely on government funding, while others have a combination of government and private funding, with the government retaining substantial power and influence.

The total amount spent on education averaged 15 percent of the annual national budgets between 1980 and 1991, increasing to 17.7 percent in 1990 and 1991. This investment in education reflected the government's commitment to workforce development, as Z__BODY__,410,224,000 (US$213,044,080) went to schools and Z$218,091,000 (US$32,947,245) went to tertiary education. With the rate determined by type of school, all secondary education institutions charge fees. In private elementary and secondary schools, parents pay building fees to supplement government building grants. Thus in addition to paying teachers' salaries, and building grants, the government also makes tuition contributions depending on grade and level of education.

In Zimbabwe, there are obvious regional disparities in personal and class income, wealth, and standard of living—all of which are related to illiteracy. The budget of the Ministry of Education and Culture increased considerably, about from Z$3.1 million in 1993-1994 to just over Z$3.3 million million in 1994-1995. The allocation for education also increased from almost Z$4.0 million in 1995-1996 to almost Z$4.5 million in 1996-1997. In total, the Ministry of Education and Culture was allocated 27.6 percent of the 1996-1997 national budget. With the inclusion of the Ministry of Higher Education, the total allocation for education amounted to nearly Z$5.5 million, or 34 percent, of expenditures in 1996-1997. In contrast the Defense Ministry received only a little more than Z__BODY__.5 million in 1993-1994. This amount was increased to approximately Z$2.1 million in 1994-1995, and then further increased to almost Z$2.4 million in 1996-1997, representing 11 percent of national expenditures for that fiscal year.

The increase in the percentage of the national budget that was allocated to education in a given year has been somewhat reflected in the literacy rate and the index of education and human development. For example, education received just over Z__BODY__.5 million in 1993-1994. This amount was increased to a little more than Z$2.1 million in 1994-1995, and further increased to almost Z$2.4 million a year later. At the same time, the adult literacy rate increased from 56 percent in 1970 to 86 percent in 1995. Education as percentage of gross national product increased from 6.6 percent in 1980 to 8.3 percent in 1995 in Zimbabwe. Between 1988 and 1995, the increase in secondary and technical schools was 1.7 percent of total enrollment across Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe's gross enrollment ratio increased from 41 percent in 1980 to 68 percent in 1995. Generally, enrollment in natural and applied sciences in 1995 was 25 percent. It is also interesting to note that as a percentage of Zimbabwe's total workforce, the population of women in 1995 was 44 percent.

NONFORMAL EDUCATION

Nonformal education in Zimbabwe includes instruction provided outside of the regular educational schools and often includes correspondence courses, adult literacy campaigns, night school, and study groups. Residents who take advantage of nonformal education opportunities include those who are unable to access the formal educational system for various reasons. Generally the programs used are similar to those offered in a formal education setting, and they cover elementary education all the way up to tertiary education. Many people are unable to pursue further study due to marriage, pregnancy, or rural living conditions, while those who dropped out of school may find that they prefer nonformal education. That is especially true for dropouts who live in or near cities, where the infrastructure exists to promote further education, such as the availability of electricity to home study at night.

Although the national government is involved in nonformal education, municipal governments, churches, and other private sector NGOs carry out the bulk of the responsibility. Health education, cooking, and art are often taught to women in the afternoons in various centers throughout the country, especially in the cities.

Zimbabwe's literacy campaigns have yielded negligible results (Grainger). Literacy, particularly for Zimbabwean women and girls, is important not only because it narrows the gap between the type of educational opportunities men have and those women have, but also because it has been shown to improve women's health and to create sustainable economic and social development. Education increases women's productivity, which provides a direct contribution to the economy. More significantly, education increases a woman's self-esteem and her economic and political power, improves health and nutrition awareness, and reduces child birth and death rates and leads to improved child immunization.

TEACHING PROFESSION

The largest sector of higher education is teacher education colleges, which are situated mostly in urban centers, much like technical colleges. The teacher education colleges offer instruction in numerous subjects, such as languages, arts, mathematics, social sciences, sciences, and commercial and other technical fields. While each college has a unique curriculum, there are certain areas where the curriculum is standardized such as science, mathematics, English, Shona/Ndebele, and professional foundations. Whereas some colleges train both primary and secondary school teachers, some specialize in training just one level. Because of the special relationship that exists between the University of Zimbabwe and teachertraining colleges, the diplomas that are granted are university certificates.

In general, the Ministry of Higher Education administers technical and teachers' colleges, with teachers' colleges having a somewhat differing status, as the awarding of diploma certificates illustrates. Teachers' colleges follow the standard administrative structure of government colleges, but unlike technical colleges, they have an academic board, which is called the Associate College Centre academic board. This board comprises all college principals, representatives from the Ministry of Higher Education's Teacher Education section, and university representatives. The board is charged with the responsibility of monitoring all academic programs in the colleges. Technical college administrative structure comprises three bodies. The first is a college advisory council (CAC), which advises the principal on how to run the institution smoothly. Members are appointed by the Minister of Higher Education to advise the principal and help meet commerce and industry workforce needs. The second body is the college administration (CA), which is the administrative organ of the college; it includes the principal, the registrar, and the deputy and assistant registrars. The final group is The College Board of Studies Committee (CBSC), which is chaired by the college principal and is responsible for monitoring academic programs as well as overall administration. Senior administrators of the college join the principal on the board.

As school enrollments grew, the number of teachers grew as well. There were 28,500 primary school teachers in 1980, which increased to 58,200 in 1989. During that same period, secondary school teachers increased by 3,730 teachers, to a total of 25,030 in 1989. The number of untrained teachers increased from 3 percent to 49 percent during the same period. This problem was more pronounced in rural areas and in the fields of science, practical technology, and mathematics. The high turnover of teachers from rural areas and the lack of adequate salaries was exacerbated by cuts in social spending that were precipitated by economic structural adjustments in the 1990s, all of which combined to create a severely distressed situation among rural education institutions. The problem of high teacher turnover first experienced in the 1980s and 1990s continues into the new millennium. Officially the student-teacher ratio is 30:1 in elementary schools, decreasing to 20:1 in forms one through four, and decreasing even further in forms five and six. However, in reality, the ratios are much higher. While the government pays teachers' salaries as civil servants, private schools pay for extra teachers through school management committees.

SUMMARY

Since Zimbabwe achieved independence, dramatic developments have taken place in all aspects of the country's education system. There were exponential enrollment figures at all levels, leading to the expansion of existing buildings, as well as the establishment of new elementary, secondary, and tertiary education institutions. The primary curricula became a mechanism by which important functional skills in health, interpersonal relationships, and environmental sustainability were imparted in addition to the traditional math, reading, and writing skills. Innovative methodologies such as science kits and the use of the Internet in education were introduced. These efforts democratized the educational system, allowing more students to have access to various subjects. The improvements in teacher training through multimedia approaches—in addition to face-to-face instruction—have facilitated the reduction of untrained teachers and personnel.

Despite those gains, persistent challenges still remain. The failure to attract and retain teachers in rural areas where the bulk of the population lives remains perhaps the most important consideration at the start of the twenty-first century. As more and more people leave school only to immediately fill the unemployment ranks due to downsizing and retrenchment driven by poor economic policies, many people will look to the rural areas where they can work the land. Many of the unemployed are trained in agriculture and environmental studies, but they are unable to purchase or own land in an area that is free from civil strife. Sustaining both the quantity and the quality of education in an economy that has been adversely affected by economic globalization remains a constant concern. The absence of adequate resources and egalitarian access to quality education will continue to be a challenge to educators and government officials. Many schools still lack an adequate infrastructure, such as library resources, workshops, classrooms and laboratories, textbooks, supplementary reading materials, and reference products. In particular, the absence of state-of-theart library resources continues to be a challenge for most tertiary education institutions.

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—Saliwe M. Kawewe