By Patrick Guramatunhu- “Chiredzi South legislator Kalisto Gwanetsa last week called a meeting with all school heads in his constituency after it recorded poor results during the 2019 Grade 7, Ordinary Level and Advance Level Zimsec examinations” reported Newsday in February 2020.

“Most of the schools performed dismally with some posting a 0% pass rate while others got 2% or 3%.”

“I have called this meeting because I am not happy with last year’s results. I know things are difficult economically, but our results are pathetic. We have room to improve. We should be seen putting more effort to improve our pass rate,” said the Zanu PF MP Brigadier-General Kalisto Gwanetsa (Retired).

Well the schools were open for only three months before they closed for the nationwide corona virus lockdown. 

Officially, schools reopened on 28 September 2020 but in practice students have not been attending classes because there are no teachers. Teachers are strike. They are demanding a living wage. 

One thing is certain, there will NOT be much improvement in the school results in Chiredzi South constituency. And if the truth be told this is not a problem in Chiredzi South alone, it is everywhere.

2019 was not the first time the country had posted pathetic school results, this has been going on for decades now. And, worst of all, there is absolutely no hope of education standard ever improving without first reviving the country’s comatose economy. As long as the economy remains in the doldrums there will be no money to pay the teachers a living wage and money to pay for all the other things needed to deliver quality education. 

Zimbabwe’s economy has been in decline for the last 40 years, ever since the country’s independence in 1980. Four decades of gross mismanagement and rampant corruption have left the country’s once robust and promising economy in ruins. 

Zanu PF, the party that has remained in office throughout the 40 years, has grudging acknowledged the economic meltdown but refused to accept it is responsible for it. 

Worst of all, the party insist it has solutions to revive the economy, insisting the country is well on its way to become an “upper middle income nation by 2030, vision 2030!” The reality is Zanu PF has no clue what to do to revive the economic and the failure to provide such basic services as education and health proves the country is sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss. 

The tragedy is the people are stuck with this corrupt and tyrannical Zanu PF regime for all these last 40 years. The regime has rigged the elections to secure it stay in power. 

“Failure to find a lasting solution for our schools could have long-term consequences not only for education, but also for our development trajectory of the nation. Solutions must be holistic, comprehensive and inclusive. We can resolve this social contract breakdown,” commented Kenneth Mtata, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) secretary-general.

The only holistic, comprehensive, inclusive and lasting solution to Zimbabwe’s economic and political crisis, the crisis in education is but one manifestation of the national crisis, is for the country to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance by holding free, fair and credible elections. 

Zimbabweans have known that the root cause of the country’s economic and political problems is bad governance. Even now with the nation’s very survival on the line, some people will not look Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF cronies in the eye and tell them “Zimbabwe must have a new system of government, one where everyone has a meaningful vote!”  

“Find a holistic and lasting solution to the national crisis!” Yeah right!  You know what that solution is but cannot speak it! Zanu PF would have never dragged us into this hell-on-earth and kept us stuck there all these last 40 years without our silent consent and passive cooperation. 

Decades of poor examination results has condemned hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans to a life time of ignorance and uselessness. This cruel and criminal waste of human lives must stopped.

A nation that fails to educate its citizen is doomed.