In 2020, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed into law the
Education Amendment Act which compels the State to provide free basic education
in line with provisions of section 27 of the Constitution.
Section 27 reads: “The State must take all practical measures
to promote (a) free compulsory basic education for children…”
In Parliament on Thursday, Ncube said free education would
take time to implement, pointing out that government was not in a position to
implement the programme in January.
“To fully transition to total free education, we have to
undertake a thorough evaluation of requirements, identifying gaps to debate and
implementation of activities that broaden coverage for education to every
child. So, this is a process, we will get there because we have started but we
are already doing a lot in terms of education access,” Ncube said.
“I have said earlier that provision of free education is a
process, hence the budget increased allocation to the sector by 2,1% from the
previous years.”
In his vote for the Primary and Secondary Education
ministry, Ncube allocated $631,3 billion (US$976 million) towards providing
quality infant, junior and secondary education.
The bulk of the allocation will, however, go towards
teachers’ salaries and other learning costs.
“Let me take this opportunity to advise the august House
that already government is the main funder of basic education and that is from
paying of teachers, construction of schools, provision of teaching and learning
materials, supporting public examinations access, payment of fees for some
schools and learners such as the Basic Education And Assistance (Beam)
programme. Government is already doing a
lot in terms of making sure that there is better education access, indeed
education is free.”
Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi, during a Finance Bill
budget debate said the budget was insufficient to facilitate free education.
“As I look into the issue of education, I considered the
funding that was availed to education by the minister but I noticed that next
year there is going to be free education, as was announced, but when I look at
the $1,9 billion that was allocated towards Beam, I see that as being very
little and insufficient for us to roll out the free education policy,” Togarepi
said.
“In my opinion, the
minister’s statement was supposed to be focused or considering the free
education policy to start next year January, but his statement allocated very
insufficient funds towards the programme.”
Teachers unions also said the budget set aside for free
education was too little.
Mberengwa East legislator Marko Raidza (Zanu PF) said: “If
we consider the budget that was presented, it did not satisfy the needs of this
(Beam) programme despite the allocated funds, considering programme-based budgeting.
We realise that most of the funding will be taken up by civil servants wages in
the education sector and very little is left for the implementation of the
programme.”
Analysts have
rubbished Mnangagwa’s free education pledge saying it was a political
gimmick aimed at hoodwinking citizens into voting for him and the ruling Zanu
PF party in the 2023 elections.
For years, government has been promising free basic
education but has failed to implement the policy.
A recent global study by World Remit 2022 ranked the
country’s education as one of the most expensive, and six times more than the
total average income of an average family, resulting in thousands of school
dropouts.
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