MPs, stakeholders bemona poor ECD funding

Zim Now Writer

Lawmakers and stakeholders in the primary and secondary education sector have raised concerns over poor Early Childhood Development funding in Zimbabwe, expressing the need to ensure the stage is prioritised.

The sector is currently receiving only 2% of the national budget, a far cry from international benchmark of 10%.

In his remarks at a stakeholder engagement meeting held in Harare yesterday, the chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education, Torerai Moyo said the issue must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

The event was held as one of the build-up occasions to the commemoration of the International Day of the African Child on June 15.

“ECD is underfunded in Zimbabwe, it receives very little in funding commitments. As policy makers we need to do more to ensure the sector is given the due attention it deserves.

“We are completely seized with this matter to ensure equal access,” Moyo said.

Among other things, the sector has severe staff shortages with most rural areas, according to Moyo, having a 1:50 teacher-student ratio.

“We were in (Bale) area in Binga where you hardly find a learning institution. Children walk for over 20km to their nearest school and given such circumstances, I would say we are breeding a cycle of generational poverty”.

Moyo urged government to avail more resources to improve ECD which he described as a foundation for any child.

“There are several ways to do so. Zimbabwe has a lot of resources. There was discovery of lithium with a value of more than US$3 billion,” he said, adding that revenue realised from mineral resources mining should be channelled towards ECD education.

Zimbabwe Network of Early Childhood Development Actors national coordinator, Naison Bhunu concurred with Moyo, noting the need to unpack international protocols in a bid to understand global trends.

Bhunu also said despite funding shortages, ECD learners are having their rights abused through excessive homework loads.

“Play is a right for children. They should be accorded four hours to play each but they are unable to do so because of loads of homework. As the curriculum is being deliberated on, we need to look at that,” he said.

Zimbabwe requires 30 000 ECD classrooms but the country has only 17 000.

He said it is worrying to note that of the 17 000, most facilities are not friendly for ECD learners or those with special needs.

“There is need for a fund just like the Aids levy, which we can use to directly go to education funding or ECD funding. It has been done somewhere,” he said.