CSOs criticize govt plan to close 40 schools in Matabeleland

Civil Society Organisations have slammed the government’ plans to close down at least 40 schools in Matabeleland due to low enrollment.

Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition representative, Dumisani Nkomo, said:

It is frivolous and vexatious for the government to claim these schools are not viable when the government is presiding over more than 50 loss making parastatals and yet these loss-making entities are still dear to government,

The move will cause children to travel longer distances, thus, increasing the already high failure rate and dropout rates. Girl children will be exposed to rape and abuse due to the long distances they have to travel to the nearest learning institution.

The Matebeleland Institute for Human Rights (MIHR) said:

In this policy directive, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education did not consider the best interests of the children but its own administrative interests – which is wrong,

By closing these schools, the rights to education for the few children currently enrolled shall be adversely affected. Education is fundamental human rights and its fulfilment should not be premised on or determined by numbers but by the availability of students who need the right

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