The Unfulfilled Promise of Education: Lilian’s Story”

By CATHERINE MUROMBEDZI
HEALTH CORRESPONDENT

Lilian is a six-year-old girl. She resides in the Tandi village, Makoni District in Manicaland Province, Zimbabwe. In 2024, Lilian attended Early Childhood Development classes at Mubvurungwa Primary School. The school is a walking distance of 4km from her homestead.

Lily loved going to school, and her future was bright.
Today, she watches her mates go to school while she remains at home playing alone. At times, her mother tags her along to her piece jobs. Piece jobs are daily contracts where one is paid in cash or kind on satisfactory completion of the tasks assigned. The tasks are manual and are physically draining.
Her mother is young, aged 26, with a year-old-boy on her back, trudges from homestead to homestead in search of maricho. Every day is an uphill task, taking a rest on Friday, which is Chisi. Chisi is a day set aside communally to rest. It is sacred, and anyone violating the day is punished at the village head council. Punishment is usually in livestock form.

Lilian’s mother has a healthy maize crop at her homestead. Her small field has mixed crops, beans, pumpkins, groundnuts, and cucumbers.
“I hope that one day I will be able to save the required amount for school. Lily is a brilliant girl. Her teacher was pleased with her progress last year,” said Sarudzai, Lily’s mother.
They live in a kitchen hut that doubles up as the bedroom.
As the day ends, Lily runs to meet her cousins who live within the same compound. Those familiar with the Zimbabwean rural family set-up understand the chimana concept. Chimana is made up of family lines.
In 2022, before the El Nino induced drought, Lily’s mother managed to send her to school, and she wished so until her girl got the foundation to life. However, today, Lily misses school.
“Mauya, mauya, madzidzei nhasi, ndipeo ndione?”
(Welcome back. What did you learn today?”) Lily runs to welcome her cousins from school. The little girls are tired, having walked from school. They ignore her pleas and head to their homestead in search of food. The homestead is a stone throw away.
Lily’s reality mirrors many more children who are out of school.
Education is a basic right. However, that right remains on paper. She loves school. However, it is a mirage that Lily can not touch.
Lily’s cousins are lucky. Their parents afford to send them to school. The tuition and levy cost US$30 or equivalent a term. Lily’s mother hardly makes U$3 a day. On tough days, she makes a dollar. The little that she makes puts food on the table.
The community has no borehole nearby. So does Mubvurungwa Primary School.
They fetch water from Hande River and shallow wells along the riverbed.
At Mubhurungwa Primary School, only the headmaster’s house has electricity. The rest of the teachers’ houses are in the dark.
Clutching water bottles, Lily’s cousins happily walk to school.
With the onset of rains in January, dirt and debris is washed into river and shallow wells.
When Hande River floods, many children from across the river miss school. Hande can get angry during the day as it rains upstream. In such events, pupils get overnight accommodation from villagers.

Mubvurungwa school has no borehole, a pungent smell fills the environment near the Blair toilets.

The majority of the children at the school look malnourished.
Back home, open defecation is practiced in many homesteads in the area.
The thick woodlands offer hiding as toilets are a luxury to many households.
The combination of open defecation and shallow wells augers well for water-borne diseases.

Waterborne diseases include cholera, typhoid, dysentery, bilharzia, and gastroenteritis, which can be spread through poor sanitation and inadequate hygiene practices.

● The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has been on the forefront of upholding and protecting the rights and welfare of children in Zimbabwe since 1982.
UNICEF strives to have all school-going children in school.
“Only six children out of ten aged 3 to 5 are enrolled in pre-primary education. Half of the adolescents in Zimbabwe aged 13 to 19 are not in school. Only one child out of ten children with disabilities is in school.
Poverty and disabilities are among the main triggers for children in primary school age out of school. Because of poverty, parents lack the resources for school fees, leading to school absenteeism and school dropouts,” reports UNICEF.

Access to safe water and sanitation remains a significant challenge in rural areas. Only 35% have access to improved sanitation. To address this, UNICEF’s WASH programme emphasizes hygiene promotion. Initiatives like the Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (PHHE) has supported 432 sanitation action groups and 388 health clubs. The clubs provide crucial hygiene education to rural children and families.
The promise of free education is critical to be fulfilled. The Constitution of Zimbabwe requires all practical measures to be taken to promote free and compulsory primary education for children. The Education Amendment Act of 2020 further emphasizes that every child shall be entitled to mandatory primary state-funded education.
Today, the Government of Zimbabwe is investing 14.9% of its expenses in education, below the engagement made at global fora to invest at least 20%.
Government must to allocate 20% of the national budget to education and invest in education infrastructure, digital devices and connectivity, the greening of schools, learning material, teacher education and motivation, protection and access for vulnerable children, and making schools climate change resilient and emergency prepared.
At independence in 1980, the government introduced free primary education that was compulsory for every child in the age group between six and twelve years old.
Almost 100% school attendance rate was achieved. By 1990, Zimbabwe had attained universal primary education status.
The Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) from 1991 resulted in critical underfunding of the education sector.
Free primary education requires massive human and financial resources, political will, and strategic planning.
With Lilian out of school, citizens who can not afford to pay tuition for their children’ education have their children robbed of a future.
Soon, Lilian may be joining her mom for maricho, or she will be looking after her baby brother.
To attend school or not to?
We are letting the future down. Those missing school would love to go.
Lily would smile if a hand is extended to see her joining her cousins.
● Feedback: cathymwauyakufa@gmail.com