ELEVEN high school children consisting nine girls and two boys have made Zimbabwe and Africa proud by clinching the 2022 International Moot championships in Romania.

Hearty congrats to this brilliant team which has, indeed, given hope to many other kids out there that anything is possible in this world if one is committed to achieve their goal.

It is quite heartening that the bulk of the team were girls which was a major plus and boost for the girl child who is currently having it rough in the country.

For ages, the girl child has faced discrimination from the family level up to national level as society deemed her not worth being given an equal opportunity to the boy child.

Many girls are still being condemned to a life of domestic chores at home and some are being married off at tender ages.

This win sadly reminds us of the millions of other brilliant minds and girl power in this country currently struggling and failing to access basic education.

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A recent survey by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt Development revealed that more than four million children were failing to access basic education because their parents can no longer afford paying for their school fees. And the bulk of these unfortunate children are girls.

Through its Basic Education Assistance Module (Beam), government is currently failing to help the distraught parents who are barely managing to put food on family tables. The Beam programme is now oversubscribed, highlighting the dire state of the country’s economy.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has, however, promised free basic education next year. We truly are hopeful that this promise materialises, otherwise Zimbabwe is doing a serious disservice to the many brilliant minds out there that are not being given a chance to excel and help develop this country.

We should, in fact, not be banking on the benevolence of a single person, the President. We, as a nation, through Parliament where all our needs and aspirations should be addressed, must make concerted effort to educate our children because the future of this country is theirs. Our failure to make sure that they access basic education means we are a hopeless nation.

At some point in our history, Zimbabwe’s education was touted as among the world’s best. So what happened that even our national budget on education is no longer able to sustain the high education standards we set for ourselves?

Something went wrong somewhere along the line and we will keep on calling on government to create a conducive environment that allows nationals to work for themselves and their children.

As things stand, the majority of Zimbabweans with families are failing to make ends meet which will keep increasing the burden on government and it’s not possible for government to educate all the children in this country. It is unheard of and unsustainable.

For Zimbabwe to produce more global champions, government needs to create a conducive environment which affords parents to support their own children’s education and development.