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Coltart calls on private sector to help with educationEducation Minister David Coltart has called on the private sector to partner the government in rebuilding confidence in the country's education system.Zimbabwe had one of the best education systems on the continent but standards have plummeted following the exodus of teachers and lecturers for greener pastures. Coltart said 20 000 teachers had left the country during the past two years. Students who wrote national examinations last year are still waiting for the results. The first batch, A-Level results, was released on Friday. Coltart was speaking at a function in Bulawayo to launch the Lobels Bread: "Buy, collect and win" scholastic competition. The competition, which has R3 million worth of prizes offers fees to children and cash to schools to enable them to complete infrastructural projects. It began on May 1 and ends on July 31 but is now going to be an annual event. One of the company's director Herbert Nkala said apart from the competition Lobels Bread was sponsoring a girls soccer team, children and old people's homes in Bulawayo as well as Khami Prison where it was sending 50 dozen loaves of bread for the prisoners. Coltart said he felt like "stealing" the company's theme for the competition: "Rebuilding Confidence in our education" because that was his aim as the minister. He said the government was doing everything to revive the education system because education was a necessary precondition for the development of the nation. But the government could not do this alone. The minister appealed to the private sector to form partnerships with the government and encouraged those interested to liaise with Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara who was spearheading the public-private partnership programme. Mutambara was in Bulawayo for two days last week touring industry and meeting business leaders. Apart from trying to get back teachers who had left the country, Coltart said he was also trying to make sure children had textbooks because the textbook-to-pupil ratio was appalling. In some schools, only the teacher had the textbooks while the national average was one book to 15 children. He said his ministry was working on a five-year strategic plan which would also see the improvement of sports and sports facilities in the country. Posted- 28 May 2009
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© Insider Publications 2009. This story is available for syndication. Contact the publisher at charlesrukuni@insiderzim.com
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