Maravi

(NEWZIMBABWE) Coltart underestimates scale of textbook thefts

Coltart underestimates scale of textbook thefts
03/04/2012 00:00:00
by Takavafira Zhou

THAT David Coltart is a brilliant Minister of Education, Sports, Art and Culture is a fact that no level-headed Zimbabwean can dispute.

However, his recent statement (27 March 2012) that the illegal sale of ETF Textbooks was limited since all public schools got the books, and that the books must have found their way into the streets after getting to the schools is not only unfortunate but ill-conceived.

At best the statement is a fantasy and at worst a fabrication or 'alibi' which amounts to nothing more than public relations absolving high ranking education officials from the cancer of corruption.

The Progressive Teachers' Union of Zimbabwe has no doubt that the Minister is ill-informed about the hemorrhage that occurred in the distribution process and the corruption inherent in the education system.

A number of school heads have revealed that those who distributed the textbooks never gave them chance to verify the numbers and on many a times heads discovered that the books were far less than they had signed for.

In other instances the distributors got to a school at mid-night and left not only inadequate books at the station but also for a number of neighbouring schools. There are also reported cases of politicians who helped themselves to books of cluster schools left at a particular school with some even donating these books at schools of their choice.

Ultimately, some schools received nothing at all particularly for Forms 3 and 4. A number of ETF books also found their way in private colleges owned by high ranking politicians and education officials.As such a considerable number of schools received few books or nothing at all.

While Coltart's assertion that the Ministry will investigate the illegal sale of books is welcome, he seems to have conclusions before launching such an investigation which is unfortunate.

Coltart is a lawyer and knows that you cannot find someone guilty before investigation.

This is not to imply that books did not disappear after reaching schools as some of the books taken from the streets of Harare by PTUZ certainly had school stamps but only to say there are no sacred cows in corruption and the Minister would be best advised to approach the challenge with a broad mind rather than to be closeted by misinformation from his subordinates.

Takavafira Zhou is the president of the Progressive Teachers' Union

Labels: BOOKS, CORRUPTION, DAVID COLTART, MDC CORRUPTION

posted by MrK @ 3:50 PM