WE members of the civil society in partnership with the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Primary and Secondary Education met today the 12th of March 2020 in Harare
RECOGNIZING the crisis in the education sector; deterioration of the standards in the education sector due to policy inconsistency and the volatility in the economy that has limited government capacity to fulfil its obligations
APPRECIATE the role of ZIMSEC in the administration of national examinations as an independent body
HOWEVER, concerned that the Executive has defined ZIMSEC as a parastatal operating on a cost recovery basis
DISTURBED that ZIMSEC has no financial capacity to perform its mandate without government assistance.
CONCERNED that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education issued a Press Statement on the 11 th of March 2020, announcing new examination fee structures for primary and secondary education, EFFECTIVELY reversing the earlier Press Statement issued on the 19th of February, 2020 which had advised parents and guardians to continue payment of old fees approved in 2015.
FURTHER CONCERNED that the new examination fees structure are retrogressive and a reversal of the detects stipulated in the Education Amendment Act (Chapter 25:04) on achieving progressive realization on the rights set out in Section 75 (1) of the Constitution.
EMPHASIZE that education is a human right which prepares learners for life and work IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CHILD, RESOLVED TO CALL UPON THE GOVERNMENT TO assume full responsibility on payment of examination fees in the spirit of progressive realization of the right to education.
Source: Education Coalition of Zimbabwe (ECOZI)
