THE Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) has released some incredible, albeit depressing and damning data indicating that fewer and fewer foreigners are preferring to study here.
In its 2023 third quarter international migration report, ZimStat specifically says 469 752 foreigners visited Zimbabwe for various purposes such as in-transit, business, educational, holiday and shopping.
It said the “visitors who came to Zimbabwe for educational purposes in the third quarter of 2023 decreased by 38,9% from the second quarter of 2022.
“There were 7 475 education visitors in the quarter ending September 2023 compared to 12 242 in the quarter ending September 2022.”
Now this is more than worrying for a country once renowned for providing top notch education.
In hindsight, this has been a long-time coming predicament which was signalled by the mass departure of locals to learn in other countries. If we no longer have any confidence in our education, would it not be foolhardy for us to expect foreigners to adore it.
In fact, the state of our education system is now so dire that it has become a tourist foreign and domestic attraction given the milestone it had achieved, but has gone to the dogs.
How can our education not be a tourist attraction when an increasing number of schools are recording 0% pass rate, a phenomenon once unheard of since independence in 1980 until most recently.
- Zim’s education gone to the dogs
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Surely how can anyone in their right mind come to learn in Zimbabwe where the teachers and lecturers are forever disgruntled and being frustrated by their own government which is forcing them to leave in droves for other countries.
What ZimStat has revealed is a serious wake-up call which should jolt us into action as a country, especially our government which has been the major culprit in the destruction of our education sector by riding roughshod over our teachers and lecturers.
Despite their unwavering commitment to duty, government has been paying them peanuts which has destroyed their morale and forced many to migrate to greener pastures where they are appreciated.
Government must urgently address salary and working conditions for teachers and lecturers if it wishes to salvage the reputation of Zimbabwe’s education, otherwise it might as well kiss goodbye to reputable education.
Government also needs to stop senselessly revamping our education system to a point that our children hate school such as the current situation whereby it created and introduced an alien system it called Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (Cala).
Cala, if truth be told, is one of those dog’s breakfast programmes which should be scrapped or completely overhauled because it is stressing both pupils and parents. So if we are not comfortable with our own education system, how can any foreigner be attracted to it.
Unfortunately, as past experience has taught us, our government never takes serious such findings as those by ZimStat, yet they help the country to improve in areas we are lagging behind.
If one was to dare ask government about these figures, it would not be surprising to hear some misguided official boasting that the country’s education is among the world’s best.
A fat lie.
