established schools. Unfortunately, as we saw in reviewing the proportion of untrained teachers at different schooltypes, it was those in greatest need who attracted the least qualified staff. The least experienced head teachers were in charge of the district council schools. Similarly, as with teachers, the fewest number of female school heads were found at the district council schools, some 2%, compared with a high of 57% in the case of the high-fee-paying schools.

25. Regarding school organization, the norm is for coeducational unstreamed day schools. Single-sex schools were found only among Group A and the high-fee-paying schools. (There are others in the wider population, but this is characteristic.) This was also the case for boarding schools: they were only found at Group A and high-fee-paying schools. Finally most primary schools do not stream their classes<sup>by</sup> ability levels. However, where this is most prevalent is in the Group A schools, followed by the high'ee-paying schools.'° 26. The largest schools, understandably, practice double-sessioning. This is in the case of the Group B and low-fee-paying schools, whose average sizes are 1462 and 1023 pupils, respectively, compared to average figures between 432 and 645 for the rest. The lowest pupil-teacher ratios were found at the highfee-paying schools (25), followed by the Group A schools (33). There is still a good deal of disparity between central government schooltypes. The average pupil-teacher ratio for the Group B schools was 38-closer to the averages for district council and low-fee-paying schools than to Group A schools.

27. Several of the schooltype variables demonstrate the same discrepancies illustrated as those detailed at the class level. For instance, the pe;centage of 'standard' trained teachers varies from 49% for district council schools to 96% for high-fee-paying schools. It is encouraging that the amount of supervision afforded both experienced and inexperienced teachers at district council schools is considerably higher than at the other schooltypes, averaging three visits per term, as against fewer than two visits per term at the other schooltypes. The least experienced teachers are found at the low-fee-paying schools, set off even from the district council schools, with an average of four versus seven years teaching experience on average. Teacher stability is similarly lowest at the low-fee-paying schools, even with respect to the district council schools, averaging 2.8 vs. 4.5 years, respectively. Textbook provision across the schooltypes varies from a low of one textbook to every three children in the district council schools up to four textbooks for every five children at the high-fee-paying schools.

28. Differences in resource availability between the various types of primary schools in Zimbabwe are pronounced, especially in quantity and types of material and non-material resource. A survey of 30 of the 86 primary schools in this study revealed that of the 12 material inputs listed in Table 5, rural district council schools on average had only 30 percent, while low fee paying schools had 55 percent, former Group B schools had 56 percent, former Group A schools had 80 percent and high fee paying schools had almost all the resources. Rural district council schools are further constrained by shortages of classroom level resources such as chalk, pens and pencils, paper, maps and charts and dictionaries. Deserving of special note are the unexpected significant shortages of basic instructional materials in former group A, former group B and low fee paying primary schools. In particular only 57 percent of former group A government schools reported always having enough of pens and pencils, writing paper/exercise books, maps, charts and dictionaries. As many as 29 percent of former group A

> **10** Of course taking the head teacher's word for granted may not be portraying the reai situatiou. In previous studies in which such questions were asked, the heads' ansv ers did not tally with the descriptive analysis<sup>of</sup> streaming. It is presumed that this was because streaming is frowned upor by the Ministry of Education,<sup>given</sup> that the Grade 7 test is not intended as a selection device. See Riddell (1988).

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