Responding to questions from parliamentarian in the House
of Assembly this week, Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and
Technology Minister, Professor Amon Murwira said the loan scheme was set up
with the CBZ Bank in July 2018.
“During that time, we put $110 million in CBZ but it looks
like people actually do not want to borrow money. This money was borrowed by
very few students,” said Prof Murwira. “That is why we then thought about the
work for fees programme which seems to have a more uptake. If you go to the
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) today, you will be able to see that the majority of
people who are working in the university’s industrial park, who are working in
the UZ grounds and so forth, are actually students.”
“If you look at that new bus terminus that we built at UZ
and you look at the pavement that was done by students who are doing the work
for fees programme. So, we have programmes but we also have to admit that we
are not 100 percent in terms of effectiveness.”
He said government policy on higher education is not to
allow any brain to go to waste meaning everybody has to be nurtured to help
develop the country.
“It is in government interest that everybody goes to
school; goes to university; goes to college; goes to any training institution
so that they can use their minds and their head for the modernisation and
industrialisation of this country,” said Prof Murwira.
The Minister said every effort has to be made to ensure
access to education in the country but has to be paid for by the public and the
State to ensure that it is of high quality that can result into knowledge and
skills that boost the capability to develop the country.
Under the work for fees programme, students that are unable
to mobilize enough fees are enrolled by the university into work for the
university and then the university helps them to pay for the fees or waive the
money.
“We started experimenting with this programme in 2019. Now,
this programme is very mature. If you go for example to Midlands State
University, we have more than 300 students who are on this programme,” said
Prof Murwira.
However, he said the programme was being affected by the
failure of deserving students to acknowledge their poverty in order for them to
be helped.
“People shy away from asking for help. In actual fact being
afraid of saying you are poor is the biggest enemy that you can have,” he said.
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