Education in Zimbabwe

The following information is a report on the status of education in Zimbabwe in reference

to the three priorities set up by the United Nations Global Education First Initiative. More
information on these priorities can be found on the website, provided below:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/global-education-first-initiative-gefi/

Put Every Child in School: In Zimbabwe, education attendance rates are fairly high. Sources cite
that among children ages six to twelve, 85 percent attend school. Despite the impressive levels of
attendance, many of the children enrolled are in classes below their age range. An estimated 9
percent are actually in a grade level higher than their age, meaning nearly one in ten children
attending school in Zimbabwe are considered advanced. There is no noticeable difference
between the attendance rates of young boys and young girls, however, typically, female students
are more often advanced than male students. Attendance of secondary school has a much bleaker
turnout, with barely 45 percent of children 13 to 18 going to school. Again, no difference is
observed in the attendance of male and female students. Post-secondary schooling is very rare in
Zimbabwe, with only 4 percent of the population having received any post-secondary education
whatsoever. Of the population receiving post-secondary education, males outnumber females by
more than 2:1 (Demographic and Health Survey 2006).

Improve the Quality of Learning: After an economic crash and cholera outbreak in 2008, a large
portion of teachers left the profession, and 94 percent of schools were closed (VVOB). In this
time, attendance lowered to 20 percent, which is less than half of the current rates. Under
President Mugabes leadership, education overcame these difficulties, hiring more teachers into
the profession than before the crisis, and making great progress in the quality of education. In
this surge of prosperity, Zimbabwe achieved the highest literacy rates in all of Africa, with 91
percent of citizens between ages 15 and 24 able to read and write at levels of proficiency in the
Shona language.
Foster Global Citizenship: Global citizenship education in Zimbabwe centers mainly on
producing independent individuals and transitioning to become a self-reliant country.
Information on the topic is very limited, the only details of which are a change in content in
social studies courses to more heavily feature citizenship education (Shizha and Kariwo).

Zimbabwe- Quality Education and Vulnerability. VVOB. (n.d.) Retrieved November 10, 2016
from http://www.vvob.be/vvob/en/programmes/zimbabwe-quality-education-and-vulnerability

Shizha, Edward and Kariwo, Michael. Education and Development in Zimbabwe. (2011).
Retrieved November 10, 2016 from https://books.google.com/books?
id=RlJW3iBph3gC&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=global+citizenship+education+zimbabwe&so
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nepage&q=global%20citizenship%20education%20zimbabwe&f=false