From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ZIMBABWE: STUDENTS STRUGGLING FOR EDUCATION AT ALL COSTS
Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 13:42:47 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1993, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: ZIMBABWE: STUDENTS STRUGGLING FOR EDUCATION AT ALL COSTS


an inter press service feature

by lewis machipisa

dande, zimbabwe, jan 18 (ips) -- a painful uprooting from one's
family home is the price some children in chisecha and gomo
villages have to pay to attain formal secondary education.

gomo is a remote rural village some 300 km north of the
capital, harare. the nearest secondary school to the village is
some 16 km away, at katarira, with an enrolment of about 300.

mhaka chioko and isaac kaunje (both 18 years old) are among
the students who either come and stay with relatives who live
near the school or come to ''lodge'' in ramshackle huts close to
the secondary school.

for the other students it is a round trip of 20 km to school
through the bush.

''here if you want secondary education you have to pay the
bitter price. you have to double as a parent and student'', says
chioko who lodges at katarira with about 20 other students.

the student ''lodgers'' have to fend for themselves: they
walk about two km to fetch water and firewood, and cook for
themselves.

each term the number of students who come and lodge at
katarira decreases as some of them get fed up with the
''lodging'' conditions which are not conducive to studying, says
chioko.

two such students are biggie chikwaka (16) and nephas
mazowe (18).

''it's not that i did not want to go to school but it was
very strenuous for me so i decided to call it quits'', chikwaka
told ips.

''the condition in which we were living were not conducive to
to learning. in a way i saved my poor parents' money because i
don't think i was going to pass'', chikwaka adds.

chioko agrees with chikwaka. he says he hardly studies
because much of his time now is spent on cooking, fetching water
and fuelwood.

''this is disturbing us a great deal. we could be performing
much better in class than we are doing now. while other students
are concentrating on school work, you are busy thinking of what
is going to be my supper'', says chioko, who is in form three.
(more/ips)


zimbabwe: students (2)

during the rainy season (november to march), the poorly-
thatched huts leak and the ''squatters'' -- as the students are
sometimes called -- have sleepless nights.

the school's headmaster, eddington maodzwa, denies any
knowledge of the student ''squatters'', saying he has just been
posted to the school.

however, a teacher, who did not want to be named,
acknowledges the existence of the ''squatters''.

he also notes that enrolment at the school is decreasing
because some parents cannot afford to pay the school fees as
a result of the worst drought in 50 years.

chipo charekera, a form-three student, says out of her class
of 45 only 19 students (including six girls) enrolled for the
first this year.

chioko says his parents refused to send him to a nearby
boarding school because the school fees are too high and a
waste of money.

the parents argue they do not see why they should waste large
sums of money educating a child who may not get a job upon
completing school, chioko told ips.

about a million people -- most of them schoolleavers -- are
without jobs in this southern african nation of about 11
million.

this is a sad testimony to a country that has an ambitious
programme of education for all by the year 2000.

but for the squatting students, it is either to go and
''lodge'' near the school or stay at home and help their parents
with farming.

chioko has chosen the path of education, saying he will never
give up schooling. he is determined to get it at all costs.

''the road to success might be ill-defined, meandering and
dangerous but i will cling on until the war is over'', says
die-hard chioko with a bold voice that depicts a fighting
spirit. (end/ips/lm/apc/93)    t. (end/ips/lm/apc/93)
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